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PRIMITIVE 
CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 



~~ THE EVIDENCE 



HOLY SCRIPTURE AND THE CHURCH, 

AGAINST THE 

INVOCATION OF SAINTS AND ANGELS, AND THE 
BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 



J. ENDELL TYLER, B.D. 

RECTOR OF ST. GILES-IN-THE-FIELDS, 
AND CANON RESIDENTIARY OF ST. PAUL'S. 



Speaking the truth in love. — Eph. iv. 15. 

Prove all things ; hold fast that which is good. — 1 Thess. v. 21. 



SECOND EDITION. 



LONDON: 

Printed for the 

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE; 

SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY, 

GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, 

NO. 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE ; 

AND BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 

[646 J 1847. 







LONDON I 

gilbert & rivington, printers, 
st. John's square. 



TO 

THE ONE 

HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC 
CHURCH, 

AS A TRIBUTE OF VENERATION AND LOVE, 

THIS WORK IS DEDICATED, 

BY HER DEVOTED SERVANT AND SON. 

Nov. 25, 1840. 



a2 




PREFACE. 



Members of the Church of Rome, and members of the 
Church of England, have too long entertained towards 
each other feelings of hostility. Instead of being drawn 
together as brethren by the cords of that one faith 
which all Catholics hold dear, their sentiments of 
sympathy and affection have been absorbed by the 
abhorrence with which each body has regarded the 
characteristic tenets of its adversary ; whilst the terms 
"heretic" on the one side, and "idolater" on the oppo- 
site, have rendered any attempt to bring about a free 
and friendly discussion of each other's views almost 
hopeless. 

Every Christian must wish that such animosities, 
always ill-becoming the servants and children of the God 
of love, should cease for ever. Truth indeed must never 
be sacrificed to secure peace ; nor must we be tempted 
by the seductiveness of a liberality, falsely so called, to 
soften down and make light of those differences which 
keep the Churches of England and Rome asunder. 



Yl 



PREFACE. 



But surely the points at issue may be examined with- 
out exasperation and rancour; and the results of in- 
quiries carried on with a singleness of mind, in search 
only for the truth, may be offered on the one side 
without insult or offence, and should be received 
and examined without contempt and scorn on the 
other. 

The writer of this address is not one in whom early 
associations would foster sentiments of evil will against 
members of the Church of Rome ; or encourage any 
feeling, incompatible with regard and kindness, towards 
the conscientious defenders of her creed. From his 
boyhood he has lived on terms of friendly intercourse 
and intimacy with individuals among her laity and of 
her priesthood. In his theological pursuits, he has often 
studied her ritual, consulted her commentators, and 
perused the homilies of her divines; and, withal, he 
has mourned over her errors and misdoings, as he 
would have sighed over the faults of a friend, who, 
with many good qualities still to endear him, had un- 
happily swerved from the straight path of rectitude 
and integrity. 

In preparing these pages, the author is not conscious 
of having been influenced by any motive in the least 
degree inconsistent with sentiments of charity and 
respect ; at all events, he would hope that no single 
expression may have escaped from his pen tending to 
hurt unnecessarily the feelings of any sincere Christian. 
He has been prompted by a hope that he may perhaps 



PREFACE. Vll 

induce some individuals to investigate with candour, 
and freedom, and with a genuine desire of arriving 
at the truth, the subjects here discussed; and that 
whilst some, even of those who may have hitherto 
acquiesced in erroneous doctrines and practices, may 
be convinced of their departure from Christian verity ; 
others, if tempted to desert the straight path of primi- 
tive worship, may be somewhat strengthened and armed 
by the views presented to them here, against the cap- 
tivating allurements of religious error. 

Whether the present work may, by the Divine favour, 
be made in some degree instrumental in forwarding 
these results, or in effecting any good, the author pre- 
sumes not to anticipate ; but he will hope for the best. 
He believes that the honest pursuit of the truth, under- 
taken with an humble zeal for God's glory, and in de- 
pendence on his guidance and light, is often made suc- 
cessful beyond our own sanguine expectations. 

With these views the following pages are offered, as 
the result of an inquiry into the doctrine and practice 
of the Invocation of Saints and Angels, and of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary. 

To prevent misconception as to the nature of this 
work, the author would observe, that since the single 
subject here proposed to be investigated is, " The In- 
vocation of Saints and Angels and the Blessed Virgin 
Mary," he has scrupulously avoided the discussion of 
many important and interesting questions usually con- 




Vlll 



PREFACE. 



sidered to be connected with it. He has not, for ex- 
ample, discussed the practice of praying for the dead ; 
he has investigated no theory relating to the soul's 
intermediate state between our dissolution and the final 
judgment; he has canvassed no opinion as to any 
power in the saints and the faithful departed to succour 
either by their prayers or by any other offices, those 
who are still on earth, and on their way to God. 
From these and such like topics he has abstained, not 
because he thinks lightly of their importance, nor 
because his own mind is perplexed by doubts con- 
cerning them ; but because the introduction of such 
points would tend to distract the thoughts from the 
exclusive contemplation of the one distinct question to 
be investigated. 

He is also induced to apprise the reader, that in his 
work, as he originally prepared it, a far wider field, 
even on the single subject of the present inquiry, was 
contemplated than this volume now embraces. His 
intention was to present an historical survey of the 
doctrine and practice of the invocation of Saints and 
Angels, and the Virgin, tracing it from the first inti- 
mation of any thing of the kind through its various 
progressive stages, till it had reached its widest pre- 
valence in Christendom. When, however, he had 
arranged and filled up the results of the inquiries which 
he made into the sentiments and habits of those later 
writers of the Church, whose works he considered it 
necessary to examine with this specific object in view, 



PREFACE. IX 

be found that the bulk of the work would be swollen far 
beyond the limits which he had prescribed to himself; 
he felt also that the protracted investigation would 
materially interfere with the solution of that one 
independent question which he trusts now is kept un- 
mixed with any other. He has, consequently, in the 
present address limited the range of his researches on 
the nature of Primitive Christian Worship, to the 
writers of the Church Catholic who lived before the 
Nicene Council, or were members of it. 

In one department, however, he has been under the 
necessity of making, to a certain extent, an exception 
to this rule. Having found no allusion to the doctrine 
of the Assumption of the Virgin, on which much of 
the religious worship now paid to her seems to be 
founded, in any work written before the middle of the 
fifth century, he has been induced, in his examination 
of the grounds on which that doctrine professes to be 
built, to cite authors who flourished subsequently to 
the Nicene Council. 

The author would also mention, that although in 
substance he has prepared this work for the examination 
of all Christians equally, and trusts that it will be found 
not less interesting or profitable to the members of his 
own Church than to any other, yet he has throughout 
adopted the form of an address to his Roman Catholic 
countrymen. Such a mode of conveying his sentiments 
he considered to be less controversial, while the facts 
and the arguments would remain the same. His object 



PREFACE. 



is not to condemn, but to convince : not to hold up to 
obloquy those who are in error, but, as far as he may be 
allowed, to diminish an evil where it already exists, and 
to check its further prevalence. 



CONTENTS. 



PART L— CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Introduction — The duty of examining the grounds of our Faith — 
Principles of conducting that examination— Errors to be avoided — 
Proposed plan of the present work 1 

CHAPTER II. 

§ 1. Evidence of Holy Scripture, how to be ascertained 14 

2. Direct Evidence of the Old Testament 17 

3. Evidence of the Old Testament, continued 38 

4. New Testament 45 

CHAPTER III. 

§ l. Evidence of Primitive Writers 61 

2. Apostolic Fathers 72 

CHAPTER IV. 

§ 1. Evidence of Justin Martyr 100 

See also Appendix 403 

2. Evidence of Irenseus 115 

3. Clement of Alexandria 124 

4. Tertullian 127 

■ Methodius 131 

5. Origen 133 

See also Appendix 403 

6. Supplementary Section on Origen . . . . . . . . .151 

See also Appendix 404 

7. Evidence of St. Cyprian 162 

See also Appendix 406 

8. Evidence of Lactantius 170 

9- Eusebius 171 

See also Appendix . 408 

10. Apostolical Canons and Constitutions 176 

11. Evidence of St. Athanasius . . . v 179 

See also Appendix 411 



Xll 



CONTENTS. 



PART II.— CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

State of Worship at the time of the Reformation . > . . .193 

§ !. " Hours of the Virgin " 194 

2. Service of Thomas Becket 201 

CHAPTER II. 

Council of Trent 230 

See also Appendix < . . . 413 

CHAPTER III. 

Present Service in the Church of Rome 242 



PART III. 
WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 

CHAPTER I. 

§ 1. Introductory Remarks 271 

2. Evidence of Holy Scripture 273 

CHAPTER II. 

Evidence of Primitive Writers 289 

CHAPTER III. 

Assumption of the Virgin Mary . 298 

CHAPTER IV. 

Councils of Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon .... 320 

CHAPTER V. 

§ 1. Present authorized Worship of the Virgin 332 

2. Worship of the Virgin, continued . . 351 

3. Bonaventura 356 

4. Biel,Damianus,BernardinusdeBustis,Bernardinus Senensis,&c. 369 

See also Appendix .............. 414 

5. Modern Works of Devotion 382 

See also Appendix 414 

Conclusion -. . 394 



PRIMITIVE CHRISTIAN 
WORSHIP. 



PART L— CHAPTER I. 



the duty of private judgment. 

Fellow Christians, 
Whilst I invite you to accompany me in a free and 
full investigation of one of those tenets and practices 
which keej) asunder the Roman and the Anglican 
Church, I am conscious in how thankless an under- 
taking I have engaged, and how unwelcome to some 
is the task in which I call upon you to join. Many 
among the celebrated doctors of the Roman Church 
have taught their disciples to acquiesce in a view of 
their religious obligation widely different from the 
laborious and delicate office of ascertaining for them- 
selves the soundness of the principles in which they 
have been brought up. It has been with many ac- 
credited teachers a favourite maxim, that individuals 
will most acceptably fulfil their duty by abstaining 

B 



2 DUTY OF [PART I. 

from active and personal inquiries into the founda- 
tions of their faith; and by giving an implicit cre- 
dence to whatever the Roman Church pronounces to 
be the truth \ Should this book fall into the hands 
of any who have adopted that maxim for the rule of 
their own conduct as believers, its pages will of course 
afford them no help ; nor can they take any interest 
in our pursuit, or its results. Whilst, however, I am 
aware, that until the previous question (involving the 
grounds on which the Church of Rome builds her 
claim to be the sole, exclusive, and infallible teacher 
of Christians in all the doctrines of religion,) shall 
have been solved, many members of her body would 
throw aside, as preposterous, any treatise which pro- 
fessed to review the soundness of her instructions ; I 
have been at the same time assured, that with many 
of her communion the case is far otherwise ; and that 
instead of their being averse to all investigation, a 
calm, candid, and friendly, but still a free and unre- 
served inquiry into the disputed articles of their creed, 
is an object of their sincere desire. On this ground I 
trust some preliminary reflections upon the duty of 
proving all things, with a view of holding the more fast 

1 It is sometimes curious to observe the language in which the 
teachers and doctors themselves profess their entire, unlimited, and 
implicit submission of all their doctrines, even in the most minute 
particulars, to the judgment and will of the authorities of Rome. 
Instances are of very frequent occurrence. Thus Joannes de Car- 
thagena, a very voluminous writer of homilies, closes different parts 
of his work in these words, "These and all mine I willingly subject 
to the judgment of the Catholic Roman Church, ready, if there be 
written any thing in any way in the very least point contrary to her 
doctrine, to correct, amend, erase, and utterly abolish it." Horn. 
Cath. De Sacris Arcanis Deiparae et Josephi. Paris, 1615. page 
921. 



CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 3 

and sure what is good, may be considered as neither 
superfluous nor out of place. 

But just as it would belong to another and a separate 
province to examine, at such length as its importance 
demands, the claims of the Church of Rome to be 
acknowledged as that universal interpreter of the word 
and will of God, from whose decisions there is no 
appeal; so would it evidently be incompatible with 
the nature of the present address, to dwell in any way 
corresponding with the magnitude and delicacy of the 
subject, on the duty, the responsibility, and the privi- 
lege of private judgment ; on the dangers to which an 
unchastened exercise of it may expose both an indivi- 
dual, and the cause of Christian truth ; or on the rules 
which sound wisdom and the analogy of faith may 
prescribe to us in the government of ourselves with 
respect to it. My remarks, therefore, on this subject 
will be as few and brief as I believe to be consistent 
with an acknowledgment of the principles upon which 
this work has been conducted. 

The foundation, then, on which, to be safe and bene- 
ficial, the duty of private judgment, as we maintain, must 
be built, is very far indeed removed from that common 
and mischievous notion of it which would encourage 
us to draw immediate and crude deductions from Holv 
Scripture, subject only to the control and the colouring 
of our own minds, responsible for nothing further than 
our own consciousness of an honest intention. Whilst 
we claim a release from that degrading yoke which 
neither are we nor were our fathers able to bear, we 
deprecate for ourselves and for our fellow-believers 
that licentiousness which in doctrine and practice 
tempts a man to follow merely what is right in 
his own eyes, uninfluenced by the example, the pre- 

b 2 



4 DUTY OF [PART I. 

cepts, and the authority of others, and owning no sub- 
missive allegiance to those laws which the wise and 
good have established for the benefit of the whole 
body. The freedom which we ask for ourselves, and 
desire to see imparted to all, is a rational liberty, 
tending to the good, not operating to the bane of its 
possessors ; ministering to the general welfare, not to 
disorder and confusion. In the enjoyment of this 
liberty, or rather in the discharge of the duties and 
trusts which this liberty brings with it, we feel our- 
selves under an obligation to examine the foundations 
of our faith, to the very best of our abilities, according 
to our opportunities, and with the most faithful use of 
all the means afforded to us by its divine Author and 
finisher. Among those means, whilst we regard the Holy 
Scriptures as paramount and supreme, we appeal to the 
witness and mind of the Church as secondary and sub- 
sidiary ; a witness not at all competing with Scripture, 
never to be balanced against it ; but competing with 
our own less able and less pure apprehension of Scrip- 
ture. In ascertaining the testimony of this witness, 
we examine the sentiments and practice of the ancient 
teachers of the Church; not as infallible guides, not 
as uniformly holding all of them the same opinions, 
but as most valuable helps in our examination of the 
evidence of the Church, who is, after all, our appointed 
instructor in the truths of the Gospel, — fallible in her 
individual members and branches, yet the sure witness 
and keeper of Holy Writ, and our safest guide on earth 
to the mind and will of God. When we have once 
satisfied ourselves that a doctrine is founded on Scrip- 
ture, we receive it with implicit faith, and maintain it 
as a sacred deposit, entrusted to our keeping, to be 
delivered down whole and entire without our adding 






CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 5 

thereto what to us may seem needful, or taking away 
what we may think superfluous. 

The state of the Christian thus employed, in acting 
for himself in a work peculiarly his own, is very far 
removed from the condition of one who labours in 
bondage, without any sense of liberty and responsi- 
bility, unconscious of the dignity of a free and ac- 
countable agent, and surrendering himself wholly to 
the control of a task-master. Equally is it distant 
from the conduct of one who indignantly casting off all 
regard for authority, and all deference to the opinions 
of others, boldly and proudly sets up his own will and 
pleasure as the only standard to which he will submit. 
For the model which we would adopt, as members of 
the Church, in our pursuit of Christian truth, we find 
a parallel and analogous case in a well-principled and 
well-disciplined son, with his way of life before him, 
exercising a large and liberal discretion in the choice 
of his pursuits ; not fettered by peremptory paternal 
mandates, but ever voluntarily referring to those prin- 
ciples of moral obligation and of practical wisdom with 
which his mind has been imbued ; shaping his course 
with modest diffidence in himself, and habitual defer- 
ence to others older and wiser than himself, yet acting 
with the firmness and intrepidity of conscious rectitude 
of principle, and integrity of purpose ; and under a 
constant sense of his responsibility, as well for his 
principles as for his conduct. 

Against the cogency of these maxims various objec- 
tions have been urged from time to time. We have been 
told, that the exercise of private judgment in matters of 
religion, tends to foster errors of every diversity of cha- 
racter, and leads to heresy, scepticism, and infidelity : it is 
represented as rending the Church of Christ, and totally 



6 DUTY OF [PART I. 

subverting Christian unity, and snapping asunder at 
once the bond of peace. So also it has been often 
maintained, that the same cause robs individual Chris- 
tians of that freedom from all disquietude and per- 
plexity and anxious responsibility, that peace of mind, 
satisfaction, and content, which those personally enjoy, 
who surrender themselves implicitly to a guide, whom 
they believe to be unerring and infallible. 

For a moment let us pause to ascertain the soundness 
of such objections. And here anticipating, for argument's 
sake, the worst result, let us suppose that the exercise 
of individual inquiry and judgment (such as the best 
teachers in the Anglican Church are wont to inculcate) 
may lead in some cases even to professed infidelity ; is 
it right and wise and justifiable to be driven by an 
abuse of God's gifts to denounce the legitimate and 
faithful employment of them ? What human faculty 
— which among the most precious of the Almighty's 
blessings is not liable to perversion ? What unques- 
tionable moral duty can be found, which has not been 
transformed by man's waywardness into an instrument 
of evil ? Nay, what doctrine of our holy faith has not 
the wickedness or the folly of unworthy men employed 
as a cloke for unrighteousness, and a vehicle for blas- 
phemy ? But by a consciousness of this liability in all 
things human, must we be tempted to suppress the 
truth ? to disparage those moral duties ? or to discoun- 
tenance the cultivation of those gifts and faculties? 
Rather would not sound philosophy and Christian 
wisdom jointly enforce the necessity of improving the 
gifts zealously, of discharging the moral obligation to 
the full, and of maintaining the doctrine in all its 
integrity ; but guarding withal, to the utmost of our 
power and watchfulness, against the abuses to which 



CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 7 

any of these things may be exposed ? And we may 
trust in humble but assured confidence, that as it is 
the duty of a rational being, alive to his own responsi- 
bility, to inquire and judge for himself in things con- 
cerning the soul, with the most faithful exercise of his 
abilities and means ; so the wise and merciful Ruler of 
our destinies will provide us with a sure way of escap- 
ing from all evils incident to the discharge of that 
duty, if, in reliance on his blessing, we honestly seek 
the truth, and perse veringly adhere to that way in 
which He will be our guide. 

It is a question very generally and very reason- 
ably entertained among us, whether the implicit sub- 
mission and unreserved surrender of ourselves to any 
human authority in matters of faith, (though whilst 
it lasts, it of course affords an effectual check to 
open scepticism,) does not ultimately and in very deed 
prove a far more prolific source of disguised infidelity. 
Doubts repressed as they arise, but not solved, silenced 
but not satisfied, gradually accumulate in spite of all 
external precaution ; and at length (like streams pent 
back by some temporary barrier) break forth at once 
to an utter discarding of all authority, and an irrecover- 
able rejection of the Christian faith. From unlimited 
acquiescence in a guide whom our associations have 
invested with infallibility, the step is very short, and 
frequently taken, to entire apostasy and the renun- 
ciation of all belief. 

The state of undisturbed tranquillity and repose in 
one, who has divested himself of all responsibility in 
matters of religious belief and practice, enjoying an 
entire immunity from the anxious and painful labour 
of trying for himself the purity and soundness of his 
faith, is often painted in strong contrast with the 



8 DUTY OF [PART I. 

lamentable condition of those who are driven about 
by every wind of novelty. The condition of such a 
man may doubtless be far more enviable than theirs, 
who have no settled fixed principles, and who wander 
from creed to creed, and from sect to sect, just as their 
fickle and roving minds suggest some transitory pre- 
ference. But the believer must not be driven by the 
evils of one extreme to take refuge in the opposite. 
The whirlpool may be the more perilous, but the Chris- 
tian mariner must avoid the rock also, or he will equally 
make shipwreck of his faith. He must with all his 
skill, and all his might, keep to the middle course, 
shunning that presumptuous confidence which scorns 
all authority, and boldly constitutes itself sole judge 
and legislator ; but equally rescuing his mind from the 
thraldom which prostrates his reason, and paralyzes all 
the faculties of his judgment in a matter of indefeasible 
and awful responsibility. 

Here, too, it is questioned, and not without cause, whe- 
ther the satisfaction and comfort so often represented in 
warm and fascinating colours, be really a spiritual bless- 
ing ; or whether it be not a deception and fallacy, fre- 
quently ending in lamentable perplexity and confusion ; 
like guarantees in secular concerns, which as long as they 
maintain unsuspected credit afford a most pleasing and 
happy security to any one who depends upon them; 
but which, when adverse fortune puts their responsi- 
bility to the test, may prove utterly worthless, and be 
traced only by losses and disappointments. Such a blind 
reliance on authority may doubtless be more easy and 
more free from care, than it is to gird up the loins of 
our mind, and engage in toilsome spiritual labour. But 
with a view to our own ultimate safety, wisdom bids us 
look to our foundations in time, and assure ourselves 



CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 9 

of them ; admonishing us that if they are unsound, the 
spiritual edifice reared upon them, however pleasing to 
the eye, or abounding in present enjoyments, will at 
length fall, and bury our hopes in its ruin. 

On these and similar principles, we maintain that it 
well becomes Christians, when the soundness of their 
faith, and the rectitude of their acts of worship, are 
called in question, " to prove all things, and hold fast 
that which is good." Thus, when the unbeliever 
charges us with credulity in receiving as a divine 
revelation what he scornfully rejects, it behoves us 
all (every one to the extent of his means and oppor- 
tunities) to possess ourselves of the accumulated evi- 
dences of our holy faith, so that w T e may be able 
to give to our own minds, and to those who ask it 
of us, a reason for our hope. The result can as- 
suredly be only the comfort of a still more unshaken 
conviction. Thus, too, when the misbeliever charges 
us with an undue and an unauthorized ascription 
of the Divine attributes to our Eecleemer and to 
our Sanctifier, which he would confine to the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, exclusively of the Eternal 
Son and the Blessed Spirit, it Avell becomes every 
Catholic Christian to assure himself of the evidence 
borne by the Scriptures to the divinity of the Son 
and of the Holy Ghost, together with the insepar- 
able doctrines of redemption by the blood of Christ, 
and sanctification by the Spirit of grace ; appealing 
also in this investigation to the tradition of the Church, 
and the testimony of her individual members from 
the earliest times, as under God his surest and best 
guides. In both these cases, I can say for myself that 
I have acted upon my own principles, and to the very 
utmost of my faculties have - scrutinized the foun- 



10 DUTY OF [PART I. 

dations of my faith, and from each of those inquiries 
and researches I have risen with a satisfaction increased 
far beyond my first anticipations. What I had taken 
up in my youth on authority, I have been long assured 
of by a moral demonstration, which nothing can shake ; 
and I cling to it with an affection, which, guarded by 
God's good providence, nothing in this world can 
dissolve or weaken. 

It is to engage in a similar investigation that I now 
most earnestly but affectionately invite the members of 
the Church of Rome, in order to ascertain for them- 
selves the ground of their faith and practice in a 
matter of vast moment, and which, with other points, 
involves the principle of separation between the Roman 
and Anglican branches of the universal Church. Were 
the subjects of minor importance, or what the ancient 
writers were wont to call " things indifferent," reason 
and charity would prescribe that we should bear with 
each other, allowing a free and large discretion in any 
body of Christians, and not severing ourselves from 
them because we deemed our views preferable to theirs. 
In such a case we might well walk in the house of God 
as friends, without any interruption of the harmony 
which should exist between those who worship the 
true God with one heart and one mind, ever striving 
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 
But when the points at issue are of so vast moment ; 
when two persons agreeing in the general principles of 
belief in the Gospel and its chief characteristic doc- 
trines, yet find it impossible to join conscientiously in 
the same prayer, or the same acts of faith and worship, 
then the necessity is imperative on all who would not 
be parties to the utter breaking up of Christian unity, 
nor assist in propagating error, to make sure of their 



CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 11 

foundations ; and satisfy themselves by an honest in- 
quiry and upright judgment, that the fault does not 
rest with them. 

Such appear to me both the doctrine and the 
practice of the Invocation of Saints. I have en- 
deavoured to conjecture in what light this doctrine 
and this practice would have presented itself to my 
mind, after a full and free inquiry into the nature and 
history and circumstances of the case, had I been 
brought up in communion with the Church of Rome ; 
the question to be solved being, " Could I continue in 
her communion?" And the result of my inquiry is, 
that I must have either discarded that doctrine at 
once and for ever, or have joined with my lips and my 
knees in a worship which my reason condemned, and 
from which my heart shrunk. I must have either left 
the communion of Rome, or have continued to offer 
prayers to angels, and the spirits of departed mortals. 
Unless I had resolved at once to shut my eyes upon 
my own personal responsibility, and to surrender 
myself, mind and reason, soul and body, to the sove- 
reign and undisputed control of others, never presum- 
ing to inquire into the foundation of what the Church 
of Rome taught; I must have sought some purer 
portion of the Catholic Church, in which her members 
addressed the One Supreme Being exclusively, without 
contemplating any other in the act of religious invo- 
cation. The distinction invented in comparatively late 
years, of the three kinds of worship ; one for God, the 
second for the Virgin Mary, the third for Angels and 
Saints ; — the distinction, too, between praying to a 
saint to give us good things, and praying to that saint 
to procure them for us at God's hand, (or, as the dis- 



12 DUTY OF [PART I. 

tinction is sometimes made, into prayer direct, abso- 
lute, final, sovereign, confined to the Supreme Being on 
the one hand ; and prayer oblique, relative, transitory, 
subordinate, offered to saints on the other,) would have 
appeared to me the ingenious and finely-drawn inven- 
tions of an advocate, not such a sound process of 
Christian simplicity as the mind could rest upon, with 
an undoubting persuasion that all was right. 

This, however, involves the very point at issue ; and 
I now invite you, my Christian Brethren, to join with 
me, step by step, in a review of those several positions 
which have left on my mind the indelible conviction 
that I could never have passed my life in communion 
with that Church whose articles of fellowship main- 
tained the duty of invoking saints and angels ; and 
whose public offices were inseparably interwoven with 
addresses in prayer to other beings, than the Holy and 
undivided Trinity, the one only God. 

In pursuing this inquiry I have thought the most 
convenient and satisfactory division of our work would 
be, — 

First, to ascertain what inference an unprejudiced 
study of the revealed will of God would lead us to 
make ; both in the times of the elder covenant, when 
" holy men of old spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost," and in that " fulness of time " when God 
spoke to us by his Son. 

Secondly, to examine into the belief and practice 
of the Primitive Church, beginning with the inspired 
Apostles of our Lord. 

Thirdly, to compare the results of those inquiries 
with the tenets and practice of the Church of Rome, 
with reference to three periods; the first immediately 



CHAP. I.] PRIVATE JUDGMENT. 13 

preceding the Reformation ; the second comprising the 
Reformation, and the proceedings of the Council of 
Trent ; the third embracing the belief and practice of 
the present day. 

In this investigation, I purpose to reserve the wor- 
ship of the Virgin Mary, called by Roman Catholic 
writers " Hyperdulia," and for various reasons the most 
important and interesting portion of the whole inquiry, 
for separate and distinct examination ; except only so 
far as our review of any of the primitive writers may 
occasion some incidental departure from that rule. 

May God guide us to his truth ! 



PART I.— CHAPTER II. 



SECTION I. 
THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 

Here, Christian Brethren, bear with me if I briefly, but 
freely, recall to our thoughts on this first entrance upon 
a review of the inspired volume, the principles, and 
tone of mind, the temper and feelings, in a word, the 
frame both of the understanding and of the heart, with 
which we should study the sacred pages, on whatever 
subject we would try all things, and hold fast what 
should prove itself to be most in accordance with the 
will of God. Whether we would regard the two great 
parts into which the Holy Scriptures are divided, as 
the Old and the New Covenants ; or whether we would 
prefer to call them the Old and the New Testaments, it 
matters not. Although different ideas and associations 
are suggested by those different names, yet, under either 
view, the same honest and good heart, the same patience 
of investigation, the same upright and unprejudiced 
judgment, the same exercise of our mental faculties, 
and the same enlightened conscience, must be brought 
to the investigation. In the one case we must endea- 
vour to ascertain for ourselves the true intent and 



CHAP. II.] THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. 15 

meaning of the inspired word of God, on the very 
same principles with those on which we would inter- 
pret a covenant between ourselves, and a person who 
had made it in full and unreserved reliance on our in- 
tegrity, and on our high sense of equity, justice, and 
honour. In the other case we must bring the self- 
same principles and feelings to bear on our inquiry, as 
we should apply in the interpretation of the last will 
and testament of a kind father, who with implicit con- 
fidence in our uprightness and straightforward dealing 
and affectionate anxietv to fulfil his intentions to the 
very utmost, had assigned to us the sacred duty of 
executor or trustee. 

Under the former supposition, our sincere solicitude 
would be to ascertain the true intent and meaning of 
the contracting parties, not to seek out plausible ex- 
cuses for departing from it ; not to cull out and exagge- 
rate beyond their simple and natural bearing, such ex- 
pressions in the deed of agreement, as might seem to 
justify us in adopting the view of the contract most 
agreeable to our present wishes and most favourable to 
our own interests. Rather it would be our fixed and 
hearty resolution, at whatever cost of time, or labour, 
or pecuniary sacrifice, or personal discomfort, to apply 
to the instrument our unbiassed powers of upright and 
honest interpretation. 

Or adopting the latter analogy, we should sincerely 
strive to ascertain the chief and leading objects of our 
parent's will ; what were his intentions generally ; what 
ruling principles seemed to pervade his views in framing 
the testament ; and in all cases of obscurity and doubt, 
in every thing approaching an appearance of inconsis- 
tency, we should refer to that paramount principle as 
our test and guide. We should not for a moment 



16 THE EVIDENCE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES. [PART I. 

suffer ourselves to be tempted to seek for ambiguous 
expressions, which ingenuity might interpret so as to 
countenance our departure from the general drift of 
our parent's will, in cases where it was at variance 
with our own inclination, and where we could have 
wished that he had made another disposition of 
his property, or given to us a different direction, or 
trusted us with larger discretion. Moreover, in anv 

O ' ml 

points of difficulty, we should apply for assistance, in 
solving our doubts, to such persons as were most likely 
to have the power of judging correctly, and whose 
judgment would be least biassed by partiality and pre- 
judice; — not to those whose credit was staked on the' 
maintenance of those principles which best accorded 
with our own inclination. Especially if in either case 
some strong feeling should have been raised and spread 
abroad on any point, we should seek the judgment and 
counsel of those who had been familiar with the testa- 
tor's intentions, or with the views of the covenanting 
party, before such points had become matter of dis- 
cussion. 

Now only let us act upon these principles in the 
interpretation of that Covenant in which the Almighty 
has vouchsafed to make Himself one of the contracting 
parties, and man, the creature of his hand, is the other : 
only let us act on these principles in the interpretation 
of that Testament of which the Saviour of the world is 
the Testator ; and with God's blessing on our labours (a 
blessing never denied to sincere prayer and faithful 
exertions) we need not fear the result. Any other 
principle of interpretation will only confirm us in our 
prejudices, and involve us more inextricably in error. 



17 



SECTION II. 

DIRECT EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 

The first step in our proposed inquiry is to ascertain 
what evidence on the doctrine and practice of the 
Invocation of Saints and Angels can be fairly drawn 
from the revealed word of God in the Old Testa- 
ment. 

Now, let us suppose that a person of a cultivated 
and enlightened mind, and of a sound and clear judg- 
ment, but hitherto a stranger to revelation, were re- 
quired to study the ancient Scriptures with the single 
view of ascertaining what one object more than any other, 
subordinate to the great end of preparing the world for 
the advent of Messiah, seemed to be proposed by the 
wisdom of the Almighty in imparting to mankind that 
revelation ; could he fix upon any other point as the 
one paramount and pervading principle with so much 
reason, as upon this, The preservation in the world 
of a practical belief in the perfect unity of God, 
and the fencing of his worship against the admixture 
of any other, of whatever character or form; The 
announcement that the Creator and Governor of the 
universe is the sole Giver of every temporal and spiri- 
tual blessing ; the one only Being to whom his rational 
creatures on earth should pay any religious service 
whatever ; the one only Being to whom mortals must 
seek by prayer and invocation for the supply of any of 
their wants ? Through the entire volume the inquirer 
would find that the unity of God is announced in every 
variety of expression ; and that ' the exclusive worship 



18 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

of him alone is insisted upon and guarded with the 
utmost jealousy by assurances, by threats, and by pro- 
mises, as the God who heareth prayer, alone to be called 
upon, alone to be invoked, alone to be adored. So to 
speak, he would find that recourse was had to every 
expedient for the express purpose of protecting God's 
people from the fatal error of embracing in their wor- 
ship any other being or name whatever ; not reserving 
supreme adoration for the Supreme Being, and ad- 
mitting a sort of secondary honour and inferior mode 
of invocation to bis exalted saints and servants ; but 
banishing at once and for ever the most distant 
approximation towards religious honour — the veriest 
shadow of spiritual invocation to any other Being 
than Jehovah himself alone. 

In process of time, the heathen began to deify 
those mortals who had conferred signal benefits on 
the human race, or had distinguished themselves 
by their power and skill above their fellow-country- 
men. Male and female divinities were multiplying 
on every side. Together with Jupiter, the fabled 
father of gods and men, worshipped under different 
names among the various tribes, were associated those 
*' gods many and lords many," which ignorance and 
superstition, or policy and craft, had invented ; and 
which shared some a greater, some a less portion of 
popular veneration and religious worship. To the 
people of God, the worshippers of Jehovah, it was 
again and again most solemnly and awfully denounced, 
that no such thing should be, "Thou shalt worship 
the Lord thy God, and Him pnly shalt thou serve," is 
a mandate repeated in every variety of language, and 
under every diversity of circumstance. In some pas- 
sages, indeed, together with the most clear assurances, 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 19 

that mankind need apply to no other dispenser of good, 
and can want no other as Saviour, advocate, or in- 
tercessor, that same truth is announced with such 
superabundance of repetition, that in the productions 
of any human writer the style would be chargeable 
with tautology. In the Bible, this repetition only the 
more forces upon the mind, and fixes there, that same 
principle as an eternal verity never to be questioned ; 
never to be dispensed with; never to be diluted or 
qualified ; never to be invaded by any service, worship, 
prayer, invocation, or adoration of any other being what- 
ever. Let us take, for example, the forty-fifth chapter 
of Isaiah, in which the principle is most strongly and 
clearly illustrated. " I am the Lord; and there is 
none else : there is no God beside me ; I girded tbee, 
though thou hast not known me ; that they may know 
from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there 
is none beside me : I am the Lord, and there is none 
else. They shall be ashamed, and also confounded, all 
of them ; they shall go to confusion together, that are 
makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord 
with an everlasting salvation : ye shall not be ashamed 
nor confounded world without end : I am the Lord, and 
there is none else. I said not unto the seed of Jacob, 
Seek ye me in vain. They have no knowledge that 
set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto 
a god that cannot save. There is no god beside me ; 
a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. 
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the 
earth ; for I am God, and there is none else." 

But it is needless to multiply these passages; and 
members of the Church of Rome will say, that they 
themselves acknowledge, as fully as members of the 
Anglican Church can do, that there is but one supreme 

c2 



20 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

God and Lord, to whom alone they intend to offer the 
worship due to God ; and that the appeals which they 
offer by way of invocation to saints and angels for their 
services and intercession, do not militate against this 
principle. But here let us ask ourselves these few 
questions : — 

First, if it had been intended by the Almighty 
to forbid any religious application, such as is now pro- 
fessedly the invocation of saints and angels, to any 
other being than Himself alone, what words could have 
been employed more stringently prohibitory? 

Secondly, had such an address to saints and angels, 
as the Church of Rome now confessedly makes, been 
contemplated by our heavenly Lawgiver as an excep- 
tion to the general rule, would not some saving clause, 
some expressions indicative of such an intended excep- 
tion, have been discovered in some page or other of his 
revealed will? 

Thirdly, if such an appeal to the angels of heaven, or 
to the spirits of the just in heaven, had been sanctioned 
under the elder covenant, would not some example, 
some solitary instance, have been recorded of a faithful 
servant of Jehovah offering such a prayer with the 
Divine approbation ? 

Lastly, when such strong and repeated declarations 
and injunctions interspersed through the entire volume 
of the Old Testament, unequivocally show the will of 
God to be, that no other object of religious worship 
should have place in the heart or on the tongue of his 
own true sons and daughters, can it become a faithful 
child of our Heavenly Father to be seeking for excuses 
and palliations, and to invent distinctions between one 
kind of worship and another ? 

God Himself includes all in one universal prohibi- 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 21 

tory mandate, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, 
and Him only shalt thou serve." So far from accord- 
ing with those general rules for the interpretation of 
the revealed will of God, which we have already stated, 
and from which, in the abstract, probably few would 
dissent, an anxiety to force the word of God into at 
least an acquiescence in the invocation of saints and 
angels, indicates a disposition to comply with his in- 
junctions, wherever they seem to clash with our own 
view, only so far as we cannot avoid compliance ; and 
to seek how we may with any show of propriety evade 
the spirit of those commands. Instead of that full, 
free, and unstinted submission of our own inclinations 
and propensities to the Almighty's will wherever we 
can discover it, which those entertain whom the Lord 
seeketh to worship Him ; to look for exceptions and to 
act upon them, bears upon it the stamp of a reserved 
and grudging service. After so many positive warn- 
ings, enactments, and denunciations, against seeking 
by prayer the aid of any other being whatever, surely 
a positive command would have been absolutely neces- 
sary to justify a mortal man in preferring any prayer 
to any being, saint, angel, or archangel, save only the 
Supreme Deity alone. Instead of any such command 
or even permission appearing, not one single word 
occurs, from the first syllable in the Book of Genesis 
to the last of the prophet Malachi, which could even 
by implication be brought to countenance the practice 
of approaching any created being in prayer. 

But let us now look to the examples on this subject 
afforded in the Old Testament. Many, very many a 
prayer is recorded of holy men, of inspired men, of 
men, to whose holiness and integrity and acceptance 



22 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

the Holy Spirit bears witness; yet among these 
prayers there is not found one invocation addressed to 
saint or angel. I will not here anticipate the obser- 
vations which it will be necessary to make in conse- 
quence of the extraordinary argument which has been 
devised, to account for the absence of invocations to 
saints before the resurrection of Christ, namely, that 
before that event the saints were not admitted into 
heaven. Although pressed forward with such unhesi- 
tating confidence in its validity, that argument is so sin- 
gular in its nature, and so important in its consequences, 
and withal so utterly groundless, as to call for a separate 
examination, on which we will shortly enter: mean- 
while, we are now inquiring into the matter of fact. 

The whole Book of Psalms is a manual of devo- 
tion, consisting alternately, or rather intermixedly, of 
prayers and praises, composed some by Moses, some 
by other inspired Israelites of less note, but the 
greater part by David himself; and what is the force 
and tendency of their example ? Words are spoken in 
collaudation of " Moses and Aaron among the saints of 
the Lord," and of " Samuel among such as called upon 
his name;" and mention is made with becoming 
reverence of the holy angels ; but not one word ever 
falls from the pen of the Psalmist, addressed, by way of 
invocation, to saint or angel. In the Roman Ritual 
supplication is made to Abel and Abraham as well as to 
Michael and all angels. If it is now lawful, if it is now 
the duty of the worshippers of the true God to seek 
his aid through the mediation of those holy men, can 
we avoid asking, Why the inspired patriarchs did not 
appeal to Abel for his mediation? Why did not the 
inspired David invoke the father of the faithful to 
intercede for him with God? If the departed spirits 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 23 

of faithful men may be safely addressed in prayer ; if 
those who in their lifetime have, to their fellow-mortals, 
(who can judge only from outward actions, and cannot 
penetrate the heart,) appeared accepted servants and ho- 
noured saints of our Creator, may now be invoked by an 
act of religious supplication either to grant us aid, or to 
intercede with God for aid in our behalf, why did not 
men whom God declared to be partakers of his Spirit 
of truth, offer the same supplication to those departed 
spirits, who, before and after their decease, had this 
testimony from Omniscience itself, that they pleased 
God ? Why is no intimation given in the later books of 
the Old Testament that such supplications were offered 
to Moses, or Aaron, or Abraham, or Noah ? When wrath 
was gone out from the presence of the Lord, and the 
plague was begun among the people, Aaron took a 
censer in his hand, and stood between the living and 
the dead, and the plague was stayed. If the soul of 
Aaron was therefore to be regarded as a spirit influen- 
tial with God, one whose intercession could avail, one 
who ought to be approached in prayer, were it only for 
his intercession, could a stronger motive be conceived 
for suggesting that invocation, than David must have 
felt, when the pestilence was destroying its thousands 
around him, and all his glory and strength, and his 
very life too, were threatened by its resistless ravages ? 
But no ! neither Abel, nor Abraham, nor Moses, nor 
Aaron, must be petitioned to intercede with God, and 
to pray that God would stay his hand. To God and 
God alone, for his own mercy's sake, must his afflicted 
servant turn in supplication. We find among his 
prayers no "Holy Abraham, pray for us," — "Holy 
Abel, pray for us." His own Psalm of thanksgiving 
describes full well the object and the nature of his 



24 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

prayer: "When the waves of death compassed me, 
the floods of ungodly men made me afraid, the sorrows 
of hell compassed me about, the snares of death pre- 
vented me; in my distress I called upon the Lord, 
and cried to my God ; and He did hear my voice out 
of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ears V 
Abraham, when on earth, prayed God to spare the 
offending people; but he invoked neither Noah, nor 
Abel, nor any of the faithful departed, to join their 
intercessions with his own. Isaac prayed to God for 
his son Jacob, but he did not ask the mediation of 
his father Abraham in his behalf; and when Jacob in 
his turn supplicated an especial blessing upon his 
grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh, though he called 
with gratitude to his mind, and expressed with his 
tongue, the devotedness both of Abraham and of Isaac 
to the Almighty, yet we do not find him appealing to 
them, or invoking their intercession with Jehovah. 

When the conscience-struck Israelites felt that they 
had exposed themselves to the wrath of Almighty 
God, whose sovereign power, put forth at the prayer 
of Samuel, they then witnessed, distrusting the efficacy 
of their own supplication, and confiding in the inter- 
cession of that man of God, they implored him to 
intercede for them ; and Samuel emphatically re- 
sponded to their appeal, with an assurance of his ear- 
nestly undertaking to plead their cause with heaven : 
" And all the people said unto Samuel 2 , Pray for thy 
servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not. 

And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not The 

Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's 



1 2 Sam. (2 Kings Vulg.) xxii. 5. or Ps. xviii. 

2 1 Sam. (1 Kings Vulg.).xii. 19. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 25 

sake Moreover, God forbid that I should sin 

against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you." Samuel 
is one whom the Holy Spirit numbers among those 
<: who called upon God's name ;" and when Samuel died, 
all Israel gathered together to lament and to bury 
him, — but we read of no petition being offered to him 
to carry on the same intercessory office, when he was 
once removed from them. As long as he was entaber- 
nacled in the flesh and sojourned on earth with his 
brethren, they besought him to pray for them, to inter- 
cede with their God and his God for blessings at his 
hand, (just as among ourselves one Christian asks 
another to pray for him,) but when Samuel's body had 
been buried in peace, and his soul had returned to God 
who gave it, the Bible never records any further appli- 
cation to him ; we no where read, " Holy Samuel, pray 
for us." 

Again, what announcement could God Himself make 
more expressive of his acceptance of the persons of 
any, than He actually and repeatedly made to Moses 
with regard to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How 
could He more clearly intimate that if the spirits of 
the faithful departed could exercise intercessory or 
mediatorial influence with Him, those three holy 
patriarchs would possess such power above all others 
who had ever lived on the earth ? "I am the God of 
your fathers ; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, 
the God of Jacob : and Moses hid his face, for he was 
afraid to look upon God." " Thus shalt thou say unto 
the children of Israel, The God of thy fathers, the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, 
hath sent me unto you. This is my name for ever, 
and this is my memorial throughout all generations 1 ." 
Did Moses in his alarm and dread, when he was afraid 
1 Exod. iii. 6. 15. 



26 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

to look upon God, call upon those holy and accepted 
servants to aid him in his perplexity, and intercede 
for him and his people with the awful Eternal Being . 
on whose majesty he dared not to look? Did he teach 
his people to invoke Abraham? That was far from 
him. When Moses, that saint of the Lord, was himself 
called hence and was buried, (though no mortal man 
was allowed to know the place of his sepulture,) did 
the surviving faithful pray to him for his help and 
intercession with God ? He had wrought so many and 
great miracles as never had been before witnessed on 
earth; whilst in the tabernacle of the flesh he had 
talked with God as a man talketh with his friend ; and 
yet the sacred page records no invocation ever breathed 
to his departed spirit. The same is the result of our 
inquiry throughout. 

I will specify only one more example — Hezekiah, 
who " trusted in the Lord God of Israel, and clave to 
the Lord, and departed not from following him, but 
kept his commandments," when he and his people 
were in great peril, addressed his prayer only to God. 
He offered no invocation to holy David to intercede 
with the Almighty for his own Jerusalem ; he made 
his supplication directly and exclusively to Jehovah; 
and, yet, the very answer made to that prayer would 
surely have seemed to justify Hezekiah in seeking 
holy David's mediation, if prayer for the intercession 
of any departed mortal could ever have been sanc- 
tioned by Heaven : " Thus saith the Lord, the God of 
David thy father; I have heard thy prayer, I have seen 
thy tears ; I will heal thee. I will save this city for 
mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake '." 
Of what saint in the calendar was ever such a thing as 
this spoken? 

1 2 Kings (Vulg. 4 Kings) xix, 15. and xx. 6. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 27 

I have already intimated my intention of referring, 
with somewhat more than a cursory remark, to the 
position assumed, and the argument built upon it by 
writers in communion with Rome, for the purpose of 
nullifying or escaping from the evidence borne by 
the examples of the Old Testament against the invo- 
cation of saints. The writers to whom I refer, with 
Bellarmin at their head, openly confess that the pages 
of the Old Testament afford no instance of invocation 
being offered to the spirits of departed mortals ; and 
the reason which they allege is this, No one can be 
invoked who is not admitted to the presence of God 
in heaven ; but before Christ went down to hell ! and 
released the spirits from prison, no mortal was ad- 
mitted into heaven ; consequently, before the resur- 
rection of Christ the spirit of no mortal was invoked. 
The following are the words of Bellarmin at the close 
of the preface to his " Church Triumphant :" — " The 
spirits of the patriarchs and prophets before the coming 
of Christ were for this reason not worshipped and in- 
voked, as we now worship and invoke the Apostles and 
martyrs, because they were yet shut up and detained 
in prisons below 2 ." Again, he says, " Because before 

1 The word Hell, signifying, in Saxon, a hidden-place, alto- 
gether corresponding in its etymology with "hades," is now used 
for the place of torment called by the Hebrews "Gehennah;" and 
we must perhaps regret that the same Saxon word is employed to 
signify also the unseen region of departed spirits. This circum- 
stance has been the source of much difficulty and confusion. 

2 " Nam idcirco ante Christi adventum non ita colebantur neque 
invocabantur spiritus patriarcharum atque prophetarum, quemadmo- 
dum nunc Apostolos et martyres colimus et invocamus, quod illi 
adhuc infernis carceribus clausi detinebantur." — -Ingolstadii, 1601. 
vol. ii. p. 833. "The last edition, enlarged and corrected by the 
Author." 



28 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

the coming of Christ the saints who died did not 
enter heaven and saw not God, nor could ordinarily 
know the prayers of suppliants, therefore, it was not 
customary in the Old Testament to say, ' Holy Abra- 
ham, pray for me,' &c. ; but the men of that time 
prayed to God only, and alleged the merits of the 
saints who had already departed, that their own 
prayers might be aided by them." 

Now let us inquire into this statement thus broadly 
made, and ascertain for ourselves whether the point 
assumed and the argument built upon it can stand 
the test of examination. Is this argument such as 
ought to satisfy the mind of one, who would humbly 
but honestly follow the apostolic rule, " Prove all 
things : hold fast that which is good ?" Is this such an 
exposition as that the reason of a cultivated mind, and 
the faith of an enlightened Christian, can acquiesce in 
it ? Let it be examined neither with prejudice in its 
favour, nor with any undue suspicion of its soundness, 
but with candour and impartiality throughout. 

It is not necessary to dwell at any length on the in- 
consistencies and perplexities involved in this assumed 
abstract theory with regard to the souls of the faithful 
who died before the resurrection of Christ, and which 
require to be cleared away before its advocates can 
reasonably expect to obtain for it any general accept- 
ance among thinking men. I do not wish to contra- 
vene the theory, far less to substitute another in its 
stead. On the contrary, I am fully content, in company 
with some of the most valuable among Roman Catholic 
writers, following the example of Augustin ] , to leave 
the subject where Scripture has left it. To the argu- 

1 Aug. De Pecc. Orig. c. 23. torn. vii. p. 338. —Quoted by De 
Sacy. 2 Kings (Vulg. 4 Kings)ii. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 29 

merits alleged, I would wish to reply independently 
of any opinion, as a matter of Christian belief, with 
regard to the place, the condition, and the circum- 
stances of the souls of the patriarchs and prophets 
before our blessed Lord's resurrection. It may, never- 
theless, materially facilitate an inquiry into the sound- 
ness of the reasons alleged for the total absence of 
invocation to those souls, if we briefly contemplate 
some of the difficulties which surround this novel 
theory. At all events, such a process will incline 
us to abstain from bold assumptions on a point upon 
which the Almighty has been pleased to throw so 
little light in his Holy Word, or at least avoid all 
severity of condemnation towards those who may differ 
from our views. 

It is very easy to assert, that all the souls of 
the faithful departed were kept in the prison-house 
of Hades, and to allege in its behalf an obscure 
passage of St. Peter, to which many of the most 
learned and unprejudiced Christian teachers assign a 
meaning totally unconnected with the subject of de- 
parted spirits. But surely the case of Enoch's trans- 
lation from this life to heaven, making, as it has 
been beautifully expressed, but one step from earth 
to glory, which St. Paul, in his Epistle to the 
Hebrews, cites with a most important comment of 
his own, requires to be well and patiently weighed. 
He was taken from the earth by an immediate act of 
Providence, that he should not see death ; and before 
his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased 
God. Surely the case of Elijah too, when we would 
ascertain the soundness of this theory, must not be 
dismissed summarily from our thoughts, of whom the 
book of eternal truth declares, that Jehovah took him 



30 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

in a whirlwind into heaven ; his ascent being made 
visible to mortal eyes, as was afterwards the ascen- 
sion of the blessed Saviour Himself. Indeed the ac- 
counts of Elijah's translation, and of our Lord's ascen- 
sion, whether in the Septuagint and Greek Testament, 
the Vulgate, or our own authorized version, present a 
similarity of expression very striking and remarkable. 

On this subject we are strongly reminded, first, with 
what care and candour and patience the language of 
Holy Scripture should be weighed, which so positively 
declares, that Moses and Elijah, both in glory, ap- 
peared visibly to the Apostles at the transfiguration of 
our blessed Saviour, and conversed with Him on the 
holy mount : " And behold there talked with Him two 
men, who were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory 
(in majesty, as the Vulgate renders the word), and spake 
of his decease which He should accomplish at Jerusa- 
lem ' ;" — and, secondly, how unwise it is to dogmatize 
on such subjects beyond the plain declaration of the 
sacred narrative. Moreover, how very unsatisfactory 
is the theory which we are examining as to the state 
of the souls of the faithful who died before Christ, even 
the words of Jerome himself prove, who, commenting on 
the transfiguration of the blessed Jesus, is unhappily led 
to represent the Almighty as having summoned Elijah 
to descend from heaven, and Moses to ascend from 
Hades, to meet our Lord in the Mount 2 . 

Strange and startling as is this sentiment of Jerome, 
it is, you will observe, utterly irreconcileable with the 
theory, that the reason why the ancient Church did not 

1 Luke ix. 30. 

2 " Elia intle descendente quo conscenderat, et Moyse ab inferis 
resurgente." — Hieron. in Matt. xvii. 1. Paris, 1706. vol. iv. 
p. 77. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 31 

pray to the saints departed, was because they were not 
yet in heaven. 

On this point, among Roman Catholic writers 
themselves, there prevails a very great diversity of 
opinion, arising probably from the difficulty which 
they have experienced in their endeavours to make 
all facts and doctrines square with the present tenets 
and practices of their Church \ Thus, whilst some 
maintain that Elijah was translated to the terrestrial 
paradise in which Adam had been placed, not enjoy- 
ing the immediate divine presence ; others cite the 
passage as justifying the belief that the saints departed 
pray for us 2 . But not only are different authors at 
variance with each other on very many^ points here ; 
the same writer in his zeal is betrayed into great and 
palpable inconsistency. Bellarmin, anxious to enlist 
the account given by our Lord of the rich man and 
Lazarus, to countenance the invocation of saints by 
the example of the rich man appealing to Abraham, 
maintains that section of Holy Writ to be not a para- 
ble, but a true history of a matter of fact Avhich took 
place between two real individuals ; and of his asser- 
tion he adduces this proof, that " the Church worships 
that Lazarus as verily a holy man 3 ;" and yet he denies 
that any of the holy men were in heaven before the 

1 See De Sacy on 4 Kings i. 1. See also Estius, 1629. p. 168. 
Pope Gregory's Exposition; Rome, 1553. p. 99. Stephen's Bible 
in loc. 1557, &c. The Vulgate ed. Antwerp, 1624, cites a note, 
"Thy prayers are stronger than chariots and horsemen." 

2 Gaspar Sanctius, Antwerp, 1624. p. 1360, considers the fable 
not improbable, that Elijah, living in the terrestrial paradise, wrote 
there the letters to Joram (mentioned 2 Chron. xxi. 12), and sent 
them by angels. 

3 Colit Lazarum ilium ut vere sanctum hominem. — Bellarm. De 
Eccl. Triumph, p. 864. 



32 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

death of Christ. Either Abraham was in heaven in 
the presence of God, or not ; if he was in heaven, why 
did not his descendants invoke his aid ? if he was not 
in heaven, the whole argument drawn from the rich 
man's supplication falls to the ground. 

Another very extraordinary inconsistency, arising 
from the same solicitude, forces itself upon our 
notice, when the same author urges a passage in 
Leviticus ' to prove, that the saints are now admitted 
at once into the enjoyment of the presence of God 
in heaven, without waiting for the day of final judg- 
ment 2 . " God (such are his words) commanded it 
to be written, 'The work of the hireling shall not 
remain with thee till the morning;' therefore, unless 
God would appear inconsistent with Himself, He will 
not keep back the reward of his saints to the end 
of the world." How strange, that in the same 
treatise 3 this author should expressly maintain, that 
the reward of Abel and Abraham, and the holy pro- 
phet and lawgiver Moses, the very man who was com- 
manded to write that law in Leviticus, was kept back, 
— the last for a longer period than a thousand years; 
the first well nigh four thousand years. 

I mention these particulars merely to point out 
how very unsatisfactory and unsound is the attempted 
solution of the difficulties which surround on every 
side the theory of those who maintain, that the rea- 
son why we have no instance of the righteous 
departed being invoked in the times of the elder 
covenant is, that they were not as yet admitted into 
heaven, but were kept in prison till the resurrection 
of Christ. I would also observe, even at the risk 

1 Levit. xix. 13. 2 Bell. vol. ii. p. 865. 3 Ibid. p. 833. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 33 

of repetition, that I am here not maintaining any opi- 
nion as to the appointed abiding-place, the condition, 
and circumstances, the powers of consciousness, volition 
or enjoyment of the departed, before Christ's resurrec- 
tion ; on the contrary, I am rather urging the considera- 
tion of the great and serious caution requisite before 
we espouse, as an article of faith, any opinion which 
rests on so questionable a foundation, and which 
involves such interminable difficulties. 

But while we need not dwell longer on this immediate 
point, yet there are two considerations which appear 
to be altogether decisive as to the evidence borne 
against the Invocation of Saints by the writers of the 
Old Testament. If the spirits of the saints departed were 
not invoked before the resurrection of Christ, purely 
because they were not then admitted into heaven ; the 
first consideration I would suggest is this : Why did 
the faithful and inspired servants of Jehovah not invoke 
the angels and archangels who were in heaven ? The 
second is this : Why did not the inspired Apostles and 
faithful disciples of our Lord invoke the spirits of those 
saints after his resurrection ; that is (according to the 
theory before us), after those saints had been taken by 
Christ with him into his Father's presence? I wish 
not to anticipate here our inquiry into the testimony 
borne by the writers of the New Testament as to the 
doctrine and practice of the Roman Church in this 
particular ; and I will only add, that whatever be the 
cause of the absence from the Old Testament of all 
worship and invocation of Abel and Abraham, whom 
the Roman Church now invokes, the alleged reason that 
it was because they were not in heaven till after Christ's 
resurrection, is utterly set aside by the conduct of the 
Apostles and disciples of our Lord recorded in the New 



34 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

Testament, for more than half a century after his re- 
turn to his Father's glory. 

This, however, seems to be the proper place for en- 
tertaining the first consideration, Why did not the 
holy men of old, under the elder covenant, invoke 
angels and archangels, as the Roman Church now 
does ? Writers, indeed, who have declared themselves 
the defenders of that doctrine and practice, refer us to 
passages, which they cite, as affording examples of the 
worship of angels ; and we will not knowingly allow 
any one of those sections of Holy Writ to remain un- 
examined. We must first endeavour to ascertain the 
testimony borne by the books of the Old Testament : 
and that presents to us such a body of evidence as 
greatly increases our surprise at the perseverance with 
which the invocation of angels has been maintained by 
any community of men acknowledging the inspiration 
of the sacred volume. 

The inspired writers of the Old Testament, and those 
to whom through their mouth and pen the Divine word 
was addressed, were as fully as ourselves acquainted 
with the existence of angelic beings. They were aware 
of the station of those angels in the court of heaven, of 
their power as God's ambassadors, and agents for good. 
Either their own eyes had seen the mighty operations 
of God by the hands of those celestial messengers ; 
or their ears had heard their fathers tell what He 
had done by their instrumentality in times of old. 
Why then did not God's chosen people offer to the 
angels the same worship and invocation which the 
Church of Rome now addresses to them in common 
with the patriarchs and prophets of the elder covenant, 
and with saints and martyrs under the new ? In the 
condition of the holy angels no one ever suggests that 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 35 

any change, affecting the argument, has taken place 
since the time when man was created and made. And 
as the angels of heaven were in themselves the same, 
equally in the presence of God, and equally able to 
succour men through that long space of four thousand 
years, which intervened between Adam's creation and 
the birth of Him who was Son of Adam and Son of God, 
so was man in the same dependent state, needing the 
guidance and protection of a power above his own. 
Nay, surely, if there was in man any difference affecting 
the argument, it would all add weight to the reason 
against the invocation of angels by Christians. The 
Israelites of old had no clear knowledge, as we have, 
of one great Mediator, who is ever making intercession 
for us ; and yet they sought not the mediation and in- 
tercession and good offices of those superhuman beings, 
of whose existence and power, and employment in works 
of blessing to man, they had no doubt \ This is a point 
of great importance to our argument, and I will refer 
to a few passages in support of it. 

When David, who had, as we know 2 , visible demon- 
stration afforded him of the existence and ministration 
of the angels, called upon them to unite with his own 
soul, and with all the works of creation through all 
places of God's dominion, in praising their merciful, 
glorious, and powerful Creator, he thus conveys to us 
the exalted ideas with which he had been filled of their 
nature, their excellence, and their ministration. " The 
Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens, and his 

1 A small section indeed of their countrymen in our Saviour's 
time denied the reality of a future state, and the existence of angels 
and spirits ; but the sect was of then recent origin, and the over- 
whelming majority believed as their fathers had believed. 

2 1 Chron. xxi. 16. 

D2 



36 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

kingdom ruleth over all : Bless the Lord, ye his angels 
that excel in strength, that do his commandments, 
hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the 
Lord, all ye his hosts, ye ministers of his that do his 
pleasure 1 ." David knew moreover that one of the 
offices, in the execution of which the angels do God's 
pleasure, is that of succouring and defending us on 
earth. For example, in one of the psalms used by the 
Church of Rome at complin, and with the rest repeated 
in the Church of England, and prophetic of the Re- 
deemer, David, to whom this psalm is probably to be 
ascribed, declares of the man who had made the Most 
High his refuge and strength, "There shall no evil 
befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy 
dwelling; for he shall give his angels charge over thee, 
to keep thee in all thy ways ; they shall bear thee 
up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a 
stone V And again, with exquisitely beautiful imagery, 
he represents those same blessed servants of heaven 
as an army, as a host of God's spiritual soldiers keep- 
ing watch and ward over the poorest of the children 
of men, who would take refuge in his mercy : " The 
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
fear him, and delivereth them 3 ." And yet David, the 
prophet of the Lord, never addresses to these beings, 
high and glorious though they are, one single invo- 
cation: he neither asks them to assist him, nor to 
pray for him, nor to pray with him in his behalf. 

1 Ps. ciii. 19—21. 2 Ps. xci. 10—12. 

3 Ps. xxxiv. 7. (Vulg. xxxiii. 8.) " Immittet angelus Domini 
in circuitu timentium eura, et evipiet eos." In the Vulgate the 
beauty of the figure is lost ; which, however, Roman Catholic writers 
restore in their comments. Basil makes a beautiful use of the 
metaphor. See De Sacy in loc. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 37 

Isaiah was admitted by the Holy Spirit to witness 
in the fulness of its glory the court and the throne of 
heaven ; and he heard the voices of the seraphim pro- 
claiming their Maker's praise; he experienced also 
personally the effect of their ministration, when one of 
them said, " Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine 
iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged 1 ." Still, 
though Isaiah must have regarded this angel as his 
benefactor under God, yet neither to this seraph, nor to 
any of the host of heaven, does he offer one prayer for 
their good offices, even by their intercession. He ever 
ascribes all to God alone ; and never joins any other 
name with His either in supplication or in praise. Let 
us also take the case of Daniel. He acknowledges not 
only that the Lord's omnipotent hand had rescued him 
from the jaws of the lions, but that the deliverance was 
brought about by the ministration of an angel. " My 
God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, 
that they have not hurt me 2 ." Yet when we look 
through Daniel's prayers, we find no allusion to any of 
the highest angels. He had seen Gabriel before his 
prayer; he had heard the voice and felt the hand of 
that heavenly messenger who was commissioned to 
reveal to him what should be done in the latter end ; 
and immediately after the offering of his prayer, the 
same Gabriel announces himself as one who was come 
forth to give the prophet skill and understanding. And 
yet neither towards Gabriel, nor any other of the angels 
of God, does one word of invocation fall from the 
lips of Daniel. In the supplications of that holy, in- 
trepid, and blessed servant and child of God, we search 
in vain for any thing approaching in spirit to the invo- 
cation, " Sancte Gabriel, ora pro nobis." 

1 Isaiah vi. 7. 2 Dan. vi. 22. 



SECTION III. 

EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT {continued). 

We must now briefly refer to those passages, by which 
Roman Catholic writers have endeavoured to maintain 
that religious adoration was paid to angels by the 
faithful sons of God. The two principal instances cited 
are, first, the case of Abraham bowing down before 
three men, whom he recognizes as messengers from 
heaven; and, secondly, the words of Jacob when he 
gave his benediction to his grandsons. 

With regard to the first instance, how very far the 
prostration of Abraham was in itself from implying 
an act of religious worship, being as it was the ordi- 
nary mode of paying respect to a fellow mortal, is 
evident from the very words of Scripture. The He- 
brew word, which we translate by "bowed himself/' 
and which the Vulgate unhappily renders " adoravit " 
("adored"), is, letter for letter, the same in the case of 
Abraham saluting his three heavenly visitors, and in 
the case of Jacob saluting his brother Esau. The 
parallelism of the two passages is very striking. 

Gen. xviii. 2. Gen. xxxiii. 1 and 3. 

And he [Abraham] lift up his And Jacob lifted up his eyes, 

eyes, and lo ! three men stood and looked, and behold ! Esau 

by him ; and when he saw them, • came. . . And he passed over, and 

he ran to meet them from the bowed himself to the ground seven 

tent door ; and bowed himself times until he came near to his 

toward the ground. brother. 



CHAP. II.] EVIDENCE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 39 

By rendering the Hebrew word ', which means to " bow 
or bend oneself," by the word " adoravit," which is lite- 
rally " to pray to," the Latin Vulgate has laid the foun- 
dation for much unsound and misleading criticism. But 
suppose the word had meant, what it does not mean, an 
act of solemn religious worship ; and let it be granted (as 
I am not only ready to grant, but prepared to maintain) 
that Abraham paid religious adoration at that time, 
what inference can fairly and honestly be drawn from 
that circumstance in favour of the invocation of angels ? 
The ancient writers of the Christian Church, and those 
whom the Church of Rome habitually holds in great 
respect, are full and clear in maintaining that the per- 
son whom Abraham then addressed, Was no created 
being, neither angel nor seraph ; but the Angel of the 
Covenant ; the Word, the eternal Son of God, Himself 
God 2 . Before the visible and miraculous presence of 
the God of heaven, who for his own glory and in carry- 
ing on the work of man's salvation, sometimes deigned 
so to reveal Himself, the patriarchs of old bowed them- 
selves to the earth. Can this, with any shadow of 

1 Not only is the Hebrew word precisely the same, letter for letter, 
and point for point, nnsj, but the Septuagint in each case employs 
the same, TrpoaeKvvtjfrev ; and the Vulgate in each case renders it 
by the same word, " adoravit." The Roman Catholic commentator 
De Sacy renders it in each case, " se prosternavit," which cor- 
responds exactly with our English version. The Douay Bible in 
each case renders it " adored." 

2 Many early Christian writers maybe cited to the same purpose : 
it is enough, however, to refer to Justin Martyr and to Athanasius ; 
who are very full and elaborate in maintaining, that the angel here 
mentioned was no created being, but was the Angel of the Covenant, 
God, in the fulness of time manifested in the flesh. The passage 
from Athanasius will be quoted at some length, when we come to 
examine that father's testimony. For Justin Martyr, see Dial, 
cum Tryph. ch. 56, &e. p. 150, &e. (Paris, 1742.) 



40 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

reason, be employed to sanction the invocation of 
Michael and all the myriads of angels who fill the 
court of heaven ? 

The only other instance to which it will be necessary 
to call your attention, occurs in the forty-eighth chapter 
of Genesis. The passage, however, is so palpably and 
on the very face of it inapplicable, that its examination 
needs not detain us long. "And he [Jacob] blessed 
Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abra- 
ham and Isaac did walk, the God who fed me all my 
life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me 
from all evil, bless the lads 1 ." Here the patriarch speaks 
of God as the Angel, and the Angel as God : being the 
Angel or Messenger of the Covenant — God manifested 
to man. He speaks not of Michael or Gabriel, or 
archangel or seraph, or any created being ; but of the 
Lord Himself, who appeared to him, agreeably to the 
revelation of God Himself recorded in a previous 
chapter, and thus communicated by the patriarch to 
Rachel and Leah 2 : "And the Angel of God spake 
unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob ; and I said, Here 
am I. And he said . . . / am the God of Bethel, 
where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow 
unto me." The Angel whose blessing he desired for 
the lads was the God 3 , to whom he had vowed a vow 
in Bethel, the Lord Himself. 

Independently, however, of this conclusive considera- 
tion, if the latter member of this sentence had merely 
expressed a wish, that an angel might be employed as 

1 Gen. xlviii. 15. 2 Gen. xxxi. 11. 

3 It may not be superfluous to add, that this is the interpretation 
of the passage adopted by primitive writers, Among others see 
Eusebius Demonstr. Evan. lib. v. ch. 10 : who declares that the 
Angel spoken of by Jacob was God the Son. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 41 

an instrument of good in behalf of Ephraim and 
Manasseh, I could readily offer such a prayer for a 
blessing on my own children. My prayer would be 
addressed to the angel neither immediately nor transi- 
tively, but exclusively to God alone, supplicating Him 
graciously to employ the service of those ministering 
spirits for our good. Such a prayer every Catholic in 
communion with the Church of England is taught and 
directed to offer. Such a prayer is primitive and scrip- 
tural ; and such is offered in the Church on the anni- 
versary of Saint Michael and all angels : 

" O Everlasting God, who hast ordained and consti- 
tuted the services of angels and men in a wonderful 
order, mercifully grant that as Thy holy^ angels alway 
do Thee service in heaven, so by Thy appointment they 
may succour and defend us on earth ; through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. Amen." 

Such is the prayer of the Church Catholic, whether 
of the Roman or the Anglican branch ; it is in spirit 
and in truth a Christian prayer, fit for faithful mortals 
to offer on earth to the Lord of men and of angels in 
heaven. Would that the Church of Rome, preserving, 
as she has preserved, this prayer in all its original 
purity, had never been successfully tempted to mingle 
in the same service, supplications, which rob the one 
only God of his exclusive honour and glory, as the 
God "who heareth prayer;" and to rob Christ of 
his exclusive honour and glory, as our only Mediator 
and Advocate ! 

Here, though unwilling, by departing from the 
order of our argument, to anticipate our examination 
in its place of the Roman ritual, I cannot refrain from 
contrasting this prayer, the genuine offspring of Chris- 
tian faith, with some forms of invocation contained in 



42 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

the Roman service on St. Michael's day, in which I 
could not join, and the adoption of which I deeply 
lament. The first is appointed to be said at the part 
of the Mass called "The Secret:" "We offer to Thee, 
O Lord, the sacrifice of praise, humbly beseeching Thee, 
That by the intervention of the prayers of the angels 
for us, Thou, being appeased, mayest both accept the 
same, and make them profitable for our salvation. 
Through . . ." The second is offered at the Post Com- 
munion : " Supported [propped up, suffulti] by the 
intercession of Thy blessed archangel Michael, we 
humbly beseech Thee, O Lord, that what with honour 
we follow ] , we may obtain also in mind. Through. . ." 

Still, though here the Christian seems to be taught 
to rest on a broken reed, to support and prop himself 
up by a staff which must bend and break ; yet I ac- 
knowledge that so much violence is not done to my 
Christian principles, nor do my feelings, as a believer 
in God and his ever-blessed Son, meet with so severe a 
shock by either of these prayers, as by the invocation 
addressed to the archangel himself in the " Gradual" on 
that same day : 

" O holy Michael, O archangel, defend us in battle, 
that we perish not in the dreadful judgment." 

Christians of the Church of Rome ! for one moment 
meditate, I beseech you, on this prayer. It is not ad- 
dressed to God ; in it there is no mention made of 

1 I do not understand the exact meaning of these words, which 
however contain no portion of that sentiment, the presence of which 
in this prayer I deplore. The original is this : " Beati archangeli 
tui Michaelis intercessione suffulti, supplices te Domine deprecamur, 
ut quod honore prosequimur, contingamus et in mente. Per. . ." 
Probably the general sense is, that what we reverently seek we may 
actually realize. 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 43 

Christ : having called upon the angels, and on your own 
soul in the words of the psalmist, to praise the Lord, 
you address your supplication to Michael himself; not 
even invoking him for his intercession, but imploring 
of him his protection. If it be said, that his interces- 
sion is all that is meant, with most unfeigned sincerity 
I request you to judge for yourselves, whether any 
prayer from poor sinful man, putting his whole trust in 
the Lord and imploring his help, could be addressed to 
our God and Saviour more immediate and direct than 
this ? In the place of the name of his servant Michael, 
substitute the highest and the holiest name ever uttered 
in heaven or on earth, and can words form a prayer 
more direct to God ? " O Lord God Almighty, O Lord 
Jesus our only Saviour, defend us in battle, that we 
perish not in the dreadful judgment. Hallelujah ! " — 
Can this be right ? Were the archangel allowed now, 
by his Lord and ours, to make his voice heard upon 
earth by Christians offering to him this prayer, would 
he utter any other words, than the angel, his fellow- 
servant and ours, once addressed to Saint John, when 
he fell down to worship before him, " See thou do it 
not ; for I am thy fellow-servant : worship God." 

Such then is the evidence borne by the writers of 
the Old Testament. No prayer to angel or beatified 
spirit occurs from its first to its last page. The theory 
which would have us account for the absence of all 
prayer to the saints before the advent of Messiah, by 
reason of their not having been then admitted into their 
everlasting habitations, and the immediate presence of 
God proves to be utterly groundless. The holy angels 
were confessedly in heaven r , beholding the face of 

1 Matt, xviii. 10. 



44 DIRECT EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

God ; but no invocation was ever addressed to them, 
by patriarch, or prophet, or people, as mediators or in- 
tercessors. God, and God alone, the one eternal Jeho- 
vah, is proclaimed by Himself throughout, and is ac- 
knowledged throughout to be the only object of any 
kind of spiritual worship ; the only Being who heareth 
prayer, to whom alone therefore all mankind should 
approach with the words and with the spirit of invo- 
cation. 

It has been argued by some writers, that in the 
times of the Old Testament, prayer was not offered to 
God through a mediator at all ; and that as the one 
Mediator was not then revealed in his person and his 
offices, the subsidiary intercessors could not of course 
act ; and therefore could not be invoked by man. The 
answer to this remark is conclusive, That Mediator 
has been revealed in his person and his offices ; and 
has been expressly declared to be the one Mediator 
between God and man : we therefore seek God's cove- 
nanted mercies through Him. Those subsidiary in- 
tercessors have never been revealed ; and therefore we 
do not seek their aid. To assure us that it was the 
mind and will of our Heavenly Father that we should 
approach Him by secondary and subsidiary mediators 
and intercessors, the same clear and unquestionable 
revelation of their persons and their offices as mediators 
would have been required, as He has vouchsafed of 
the mediation of his Son. Had God willed that the 
faithful should approach Him by the intercessions of 
the saints and martyrs, is it conceivable that He would 
not have given some intimation of his will in this 
respect? If believers in the Gospel were to have 
unnumbered mediators of intercession in heaven, as 
well as the one Mediator of redemption, would not the 



CHAP. II.] THE OLD TESTAMENT. 45 

Gospel itself have announced it ? Could such declara- 
tions as these have remained on record without any 
qualifying or limiting expression, " He l is able also to 
save to the uttermost them who come unto God by 
Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for 
them." " There is one God, and one Mediator between 
God and men, the man Christ Jesus." But this in- 
volves the question to which the next section must be 
devoted. All I would anticipate here is, that if the 
irresistible argument from the Old Testament is sought 
to be evaded on the ground that no mediator at all was 
then revealed, we must require a distinct revelation of 
the existence and offices of other mediators and inter- 
cessors, before we can be justified in applying to them 
for their intervention in our behalf. And the question 
now is, Are they so revealed ? 



SECTION IV. 



EVIDENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Though such is the evidence borne against the invo- 
cation of saints and angels by the Old Testament, yet it 
has been said that we are living neither under the patri- 
archal, nor the Mosaic dispensation, but under the Gos- 
pel, to whom therefore as Christians neither the pre- 
cepts nor the examples of those ancient times are appli- 

' l Heb. vii. 25. 1 Tim. ii. 5. — Unde et salvare in perpetuum 
potest accedentes per semetipsum ad Deum, semper vivens ad 
interpellandum pro nobis. — Vulg. . 



46 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

cable : the injunctions consequently given of old to 
preserve the chosen people from idolatry and paganism, 
cannot be held to prohibit Christians from seeking the 
aid of those departed saints who are now reigning with 
Christ. But, surely, those precepts, and denunciations, 
and commands, are still most strictly applicable, as 
conveying to us a knowledge of the will of our Hea- 
venly Father, that his sons and daughters on earth 
should associate no name, however exalted among the 
principalities and powers in heavenly places, with his 
own holy name in prayer, and spiritual invocation. I 
am throughout this address supposing myself to be 
speaking to those whose heart's desire is to fulfil the 
will of God in all things ; not those who are contented 
to depart from the spirit of that will, whenever they can 
devise plausible arguments to countenance such de- 
parture. 

The cases both of precept and example through the 
Old Testament affording so stringent and so universal 
a rule against the association of any name with the 
name of the Almighty in our prayers ; before we 
can conclude that Christians have a liberty denied to 
believers under the former dispensations, we must 
surely produce a declaration to that effect, clear, 
unequivocal, and precisely in point. Nothing short 
of an enactment, rescinding in terms the former pro- 
hibitory law, and positively sanctioning supplications 
and prayers to saints and angels, seems capable of satis- 
fying any Christian bent on discovering the will of God, 
and resolved to worship Him agreeably to the spirit of 
that will as it has been revealed. But let us read the 
New Testament from its first to its very last word, and 
we shall find, that the doctrines, the precepts, and the 
examples, the pervading reigning spirit of the entire 



CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 47 

volume, combine in addressing us with voices loud and 
clear, Pray to God Almighty solely in the name and 
for the sake of his dear and only Son Jesus Christ our 
Lord, and offer no prayer, no supplication, no intreaty, 
to any other being or power, saint or angel, though it 
be only to ask for their intercession with the great 
God. But this involves the whole question, and must 
be sifted thoroughly. Let us then review the entire 
volume with close and minute scrutiny, and ask our- 
selves, Is there a single passage, interpreted to the 
best of our skill, with the aid of those on whose integ- 
rity and learning we can rely, which directly and un- 
equivocally sanctions any religious invocation of what- 
ever kind to any being except God alone ? And then 
let us calmly and deliberately resolve this point : In a 
matter of so vital importance, of so immense interest, 
and of so sacred a character as the worship of the 
Supreme Being, who declares Himself to be a jealous 
God, ought we to suffer any refinements of casuistry to 
entice us from the broad, clear light of revelation ? If 
it were God's good pleasure to make exceptions to his 
rule — a rule so repeatedly, and so positively enacted 
and enforced — surely the analogy of his gracious deal- 
ings with mankind would have taught us to look for an 
announcement of the exceptions in terms equally forci- 
ble and explicit. Instead, however, of this, we find 
no single act, no single word, nothing which even by 
implication can be forced to sanction any prayer or reli- 
gious invocation, of whatever kind, to any other being 
save to God alone. 

Let us first look to the language and conduct of our 
blessed Lord, whose prayers to his Father are upon 
record for our instruction and comfort, and whose pre- 
cepts and example form the best rule of a Christian's 



48 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

life. So far from repealing the ancient law, he 
repeats in his own person its solemn announcement, 
"Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord 1 ." 
While the same heavenly Teacher commands us with 
authority, " When thou prayest, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret, and thy Father, who seeth in secret, 
shall reward thee openly V No allusion in any word 
of His do we find to any prayer from a mortal on this 
earth to an angel or saint in heaven. And yet occa- 
sions were multiplied on which a reference to the invo- 
cation of angels would have been natural, and apparently 
called for. He again and again places beyond all doubt 
the reality of their good services towards mankind, but 
it is as God's servants, and at God's bidding ; not in 
answer to any supplication or invoking of ours. The 
parable of the rich man and Lazarus has been cited 3 
to bear contrary evidence ; but, in the first place, that 
parable does not offer a case in point ; in the second 
place, were it in point, it might be fairly and strongly 
urged against the practice of invoking the spirit of any 
departed mortal, even the father of the faithful himself. 
For what are the circumstances of the parabolic repre- 
sentation? A lost spirit in the regions of torment 
prays to Abraham in the regions of the blessed, and 
the spirit of the departed patriarch professes himself 
to have no power to grant the request of the departed 
and condemned spirit 4 . The practice indeed of our 
Roman Catholic brethren would have been exemplified, 
had our blessed Lord represented the rich man's five bre- 
thren still on earth as pious men, and as supplicating 
Abraham in heaven to pray for themselves, or to mitigate 



1 Mark xii. 29. 2 katt. vi. 6. 

3 Bellarmin, p. 895. 4 Luke xvi. 19. 



CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 49 

their lost brother's punishment and his woes. But then 
it would have afforded Christians little encouragement 
to follow their example, when they found Abraham 
declaring himself unable to aid them in attaining the 
object of their prayer, or in any way to assist them at 
all. Without one single exception, we find our blessed 
Lord's example, precepts, and doctrines to be decidedly 
against the practice of invoking saint or angel ; whilst 
not one solitary act or word of His can be cited to 
countenance or palliate it. 

Next it follows, that we inquire into the conduct 
and the writings of Christ's Apostles and immediate 
followers, to whom He graciously promised that the Holy 
Spirit should guide them into all truth/ In the Acts 
of the Apostles, various instances of prayer attract our 
notice, but not one ejaculation is found there to any 
other being save God alone. Neither angel nor saint 
is invoked. The Apostles prayed for guidance in the 
government of Christ's infant Church, but it was, 
"Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men 1 ." 
They prayed for their own acceptance, but it was " Lord 
Jesus, receive my spirit 2 ." They prayed for each other, 
as in behalf of St. Peter when in prison ; but we are 
expressly told, that the prayer which was made with- 
out ceasing by the Church for him was addressed to 
God \ 

To deliver St. Peter from his chains, an angel was 
sent on an especial mission from heaven ; but though 
St. Peter saw him, and heard his voice, and followed 
him, and knew of a surety that the Almighty had 
employed the ministration of an angel to liberate him 
from his bonds, yet we do not hear thereafter of 

1 Acts i. 24. 2 Acts vii. 59. 3 Acts xii. 5. 



50 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

Peter having himself prayed to an angel to secure his 
good offices, and his intercession with God, nor has 
he once indirectly intimated to others that such suppli- 
cations would be of avail, or were even allowable. He 
exhorts his fellow-Christians to pray, " Watch unto 
prayer," but it is because " The eyes of the Lord are 
over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their 
prayers ' ." He Himself prays for them, but it is, that 
the God of all grace might make them perfect, stablish, 
strengthen, settle them. He suggests no invocation 
of saint or angel to intercede with God for them. 
He bids them cast all their care upon God, on the 
assurance that God Himself careth for them. 

Precisely the same result issues from a contempla- 
tion of the acts and exhortation of St. Paul. He too 
experienced in his own person the comfort of an angel's 
ministration, bidding him cast off all fear when in the 
extreme of imminent peril 2 . Many a prayer of that 
holy Apostle is upon record ; many an earnest exhorta- 
tion to prayer was made by him ; we find many a decla- 
ration relative to his own habits of prayer. But with 
him God and God alone is the object of prayer through- 
out : by him no saint or angel or archangel is alluded 
to, as one whose intercession might be sought by him- 
self or by us. He could speak in glowing language of 
patriarchs, prophets, and angels, but unto none of these 
would he turn. " Be careful for nothing, but in every 
thing by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let 
your requests be made known unto God 3 ." And let 
any one receive, in the plain meaning of his words, his 
prohibitory monition 4 , and say, could St. Paul have 



1 1 Pet. iv. 7 ; iii. 12. 2 Acts xxvii. 23, 24. 

8 Phil. iv. 6. 4 Col. ii. 18. 



CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 51 

uttered these words without any qualifying expression, 
had he worshipped angels by invocation, even asking 
them only to aid him by their prayers. " Let no one 
beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and 
worshipping of angels ; not holding the Head," which 
Head he had in the first chapter (v. 18) declared to be 
the dear Son of God, " in whom we have redemption 
through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins." 

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews could 
bring before our minds with most fervent uplifting 
eloquence Abel and Abraham and David, — that 
goodly fellowship of the prophets, that holy army of 
martyrs; he could speak as though he were an eye- 
witness of what he describes, of the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, whose names are written 
in heaven. And, surely, had the thought of seeking 
the support or intercession of saint or angel by invo- 
cation addressed to them, been familiar to him ; had 
the thought even occurred to his mind with approbation, 
he would not have allowed such an occasion to pass by, 
without even alluding to any benefit that might arise 
from our invoking such friends of God. So far from 
that allusion, the utmost which he says at the close of 
his eulogy is this, " These all, having obtained a good 
report through faith, received not the promise ; God 
having provided some better thing for us, that they 
without us should not be made perfect 1 ." 

The beloved Apostle who could look forward in 
full assurance of faith to the day of Christ's second 
coming, and knew that " when He shall appear we 
shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is," has 
left us this record of his sentiments concerning prayer : 

1 Heb. xi. 39, 40. 

E2 



52 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

" This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if 
we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us ; 
and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, 
we know that we have the petitions that we desired of 
him V St. John alludes to no intercessor, to no advo- 
cate, save only that " Advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous, who is also the propitiation for 
our sins 2 ." St. John never suggests to us the advocacy 
or intercession of saint or angel; with him God in 
Christ is all in all. 

I will only refer to one more example, that of St. 
James: the instance is equally to the point, and is 
strongly illustrative of the truth. This Apostle is 
anxious to impress on his fellow-Christians a due sense 
of the efficacy of our intercessions : " The effectual 
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much 3 ." 
He instances its power with God by the case of Elijah, 
a man so holy, that the Almighty suffered him not to 
pass through the regions of death and the grave, but 
translated him at once from this life to glory : " Elias 
was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he 
prayed that it might not rain ; and it rained not on the 
earth by the space of three years and six months ; and 
he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the 
earth brought forth her fruit 4 ." And yet St. James is 
very far from suggesting the lawfulness or efficacy of any 
invocation to the hallowed spirit of this man, to whose 
prayer the elements and natural powers of the sky 
and the earth had been made obedient. He exhorts all 
men to pray, but it must be to God alone, and directly 
to God, without applying for the intervention of any 
mediators or intercessors from among angels or men. 

1 1 John v. 14, 15. 2 1 John ii. 1. 

3 James v. 16. * James v. 17, 18. 



CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 53 

" If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who 
giveth liberally to all men, and upbraideth not ; and it 
shall be given him ; but let him ask in faith, nothing 
wavering V Like the writer to the Hebrews, he would 
have us come ourselves " boldly" and directly " to the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need." 

Surely, these Apostles, chosen vessels for conveying 
the truths of salvation throughout the world, knew 
well how the Almighty could best be approached by 
his children on earth ; and had the invocation of saint 
or angel found a place in their creed, they would not 
have kept so important a truth from us. 

Before leaving this part of our inquiry, I would 
propose the patient and unprejudiced weighing of the 
import of two passages in the New Testament, often 
quoted on this subject ; one in the Acts of the Apostles, 
the other in the Apocalypse. 

The holy Apostles Barnabas and Paul, by the per- 
formance of a striking miracle, had excited feelings 
of religious reverence and devotion among the peo- 
ple of Lystra, who prepared to offer sacrifice to them 
as two of their fabled deities 2 . The indignant zeal 
with which these two holy men rushed forward to 
prevent such an act of impiety, however admirable 
and affecting, does not constitute the chief point 
for which reference is here made to this incident. 
They were men, still clothed with the tabernacle 
of the flesh, and the weakness of human nature ; 
and the priests and people were ready to offer to them 
the wonted victims, the abomination of the heathen. 
Now, I am fully aware of the wide difference, in many 

1 James i. 5, 6. 2 Acts xiv. 11 — 18. 



54 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

particulars, between such an act and the act of a 
Christian praying to their spirits after their departure 
hence, and supplicating them to intercede with the 
true God in his behalf: and on this difference Roman 
Catholic writers have maintained the total inapplica- 
bility of this incident to the present state of things. 
But, surely, if any such prayer to departed saints had 
been familiar to their minds, instead of repelling the 
religious address of the inhabitants of Lystra at once 
and for ever, they would have altered the tone of their 
remonstrance, and not have suppressed the truth when 
a good opportunity offered itself for imparting it. 
And, supposing that it was part of their commission 
to announce and explain the invocation of saints at all, 
on what occasion could an explanation of the just and 
proper invocation of angels and saints departed have 
been more appropriate in the Apostles, than when they 
were denouncing the unjustifiable offering of sacrifice 
to themselves while living? But whether the more 
appropriate place for such an announcement were at 
Lystra, in Corinth, at Athens, or at Rome, it matters 
not; nor whether it would have been more advan- 
tageously communicated by their oral teaching, or in 
their epistles. Doubtless, had the Apostles, by their 
example or teaching, sanctioned the invocation of 
saints and angels, in the course of fifty years or more 
after our blessed Saviours resurrection, it would infal- 
libly have appeared in some page or other of the New 
Testament. Instead of this the whole tenor of the 
Holy Volume breathes in perfect accordance with the 
spirit of the apostolical remonstrance at Lystra, to 
the fullest and utmost extent of its meaning, " We 
preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities 
to serve the living God." 



CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 55 

Of the other instance, it well becomes every Catholic 
Christian to ponder on the weight and cogency. John, 
the beloved disciple of our Lord, when admitted to 
view with his own eyes and hear with his mortal ears 
the things of heaven, rapt in amazement and awe, 
fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who 
showed him these things \ If the adoration of angels 
were ever justifiable, surely it was then ; and what a 
testimony to the end of the world would have been 
put upon record, had the adoration of an angel by the 
blessed John at such a moment, when he had the mys- 
teries and the glories of heaven before him, been re- 
ceived and sanctioned. But what is the fact ? "Then 
saith he to me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow-ser- 
vant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them who 
keep the sayings of this book. Worship God." I can- 
not understand the criticism by which the conclusive- 
ness of this direct renouncement of all religious adora- 
tion and worship is attempted to be set aside. To my 
mind these words, uttered without any qualification at 
such a time, by such a being, to such a man, are con- 
clusive beyond gainsaying. The interpretation put 
upon this transaction, and the words in which it is 
recorded, and the inference drawn from them by a 
series of the best divines, with St. Athanasius at their 
head, presents so entirely the plain common-sense view 
of the case to our minds, that all the subtilty of 
casuists, and all the ingenuity of modern refinements, 
will never be able to substitute any other in its stead. 
" The angel (such are the words of that ancient de- 
fender of the true faith), in the Apocalypse, forbids 
John, when desiring to worship him, saying, ' See thou 

1 Rev. xxii. 8, 9. 



56 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

do it not ; I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren 
the prophets, and of them who keep the sayings of this 
book. Worship God.' Therefore, to be the object of 
worship belongs to God only ; and this even the angels 
themselves know : though they surpass others in glory, 
but they are all creatures, and are not among objects 
of worship, but among those who worship the sovereign 
Lord V To say that St. John was too fully illuminated 
by the Holy Spirit to do, especially a second time, 
what was wrong ; and thence to infer that what he did 
was right, is as untenable as to maintain, that St. Peter 
could not, especially thrice, have done wrong in deny- 
ing our Lord. He did wrong, or the angel would not 
have chided and warned him. And to say that the 
angel here forbade John personally to worship him, 
because he was a fellow-servant and one of the pro- 
phets; and thus that the prohibition only tended to 
exalt the prophetic character, not to condemn the wor- 
ship of angels, is proved to be also a groundless 
assumption, from the angel's own words, who reckons 
himself as a fellow-servant with not St. John only, but 
all those also who keep the words of the book of God, 
— thus equally forbidding every faithful Christian to 
worship their fellow-servants the angels. They are 
almost the last words in the volume of inspired truth, 
and to me, together with those last words, they seem 
with "the voice of a great multitude, and of many 
waters, and of mighty thunderings," from the very 
throne itself of the Most High, to proclaim to every 
inhabiter of the earth, Fall down before no created 
being; adore no created being; pray to, invoke, call 
upon no created being, whether saint or angel : worship 

1 Athan. Orat. 2. Cont. Ar. vol. i. p. 491. 






CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 57 

and adore God only ; pray to God only. Trust to his 
mercy ; seek no other mediator or intercessor than his 
own only and blessed Son. " He who testifleth these 
things saith, Surely, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, 
come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus 
Christ be with you all. Amen ] ." 

Thus the New Testament, so far from mitigating 
the stringency of the former law, so far from counte- 
nancing any departure from the obligation of that code 
which limits religious worship to God alone, so far from 
suggesting to us invocation to sainted men, and to 
angels as intercessors with the eternal Giver of all good, 
reiterates the injunction, and declares, that invocation 
in order to be Christian must be addressed to God 
alone ; and that there is one and only one Mediator 
between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who is at 
the right hand of his Father, a merciful High Priest 
sympathizing with us in our infirmities, ever making 
intercession for us, able to save to the uttermost those 
who come unto God through Him. 

The present seems to be a convenient place for 
observing, that however the distinction is strongly 
insisted upon, or rather implicitly acquiesced in by 
many, which would admit of a worship or service 
called dulia (the Greek SouXa'a) to saints and angels, 
and would limit the worship or service called latria 
(XaTpua) to the supreme God only, yet that such dis- 
tinction has no ground whatever to rest upon beyond 
the will and the imagination of those who draw it. 
The two words are used in the Septuagint translation 
of the Old Testament, and in the original Greek of the 

1 Rev. xxii. 20, 21. 



58 EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

New promiscuously, without any such distinction what- 
ever. The word which this distinction would limit to 
the supreme worship of the Most High, is used to 
express the bodily service paid by the vanquished to 
their conquerors, as well as the religious service paid 
by idolaters to their fabled deities, and by the true 
worshippers to the Most High. The word which this 
distinction would reserve for the secondary worship 
paid to saints and angels, is employed to express not 
only the service paid by man to man, but also the ser- 
vice and worship paid to God alone, even when men- 
tioned in contradistinction to other worship. It will 
be necessary to establish this by one or two instances ; 
and first as to " latria." One single chapter in the Book 
of Deuteronomy supplies us with instances of the word 
used in the three senses, of service to men, service to 
idols, and service to God, xxviii. 36. 47, 48 : " Because 
thou servedst 1 not the Lord thy God with joyfulness 
and gladness of heart ; Therefore thou shalt serve 2 
thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee 
in hunger and in thirst and nakedness." "The Lord 
shall bring thee unto a nation which neither thou nor 
thy fathers have known ; and there shalt thou serve 3 
other gods, wood and stone." Next as to the word 
" dulia." The First Book of Samuel (called also the First 
of Kings) alone supplies us with instances of this word 
being used in each of the same three senses of service 
from man to man, from man to idols, and from man to 
his Maker and God. 1 Sam. xvii. 9. " Ye shall be our 
servants, and serve 4 us." xii. 24. " Only fear the Lord, 
and serve 5 him in truth with all your heart." xxvi. 19. 

1 eXarpevaac. 2 XarptixxsiQ. 3 Xarpevatic. In each 

case the Vulgate uses the same verb, "servire." 

4 ^ovXevcxere fyfiiv. 5 SovXevcrare. 



CHAP. II.] THE NEW TESTAMENT. 59 

" They have driven me out from the inheritance of the 
Lord, saying, Go, serve l other gods." 

It is worthy of remark, that the same word " dulia 2 " 
is employed, when the Lord by his prophet speaks of 
the most solemn acts of religious worship ; not in gene- 
ral obedience only, but in the offerings and oblations 
of their holy things. Ezek. xx. 40. "In mine holy 
mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith 
the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of 
them in the land, serve 3 me ; there will I accept them, 
and there will I require your offerings, and the first- 
fruits of your oblations, with all your holy things." St. 
Matthew also uses the same word when he records the 
saying of our blessed Lord, " Ye cannot serve i God 
and mammon." 

I will only detain you by one more example, drawn 
from two passages, which seems the more striking be- 
cause each of the two words " dulia " and " latria " is 
used to imply the true worship of God in a person, who 
was changed from a state of alienation to a state of 
holiness. The first is in St. Paul's 1st Epistle to the 
Thessalonians, i. 9. " How ye turned to God from 
idols, to serve 5 the living and true God." The second 
is in Heb. ix. 14. " How much more shall the blood of 
Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself 

1 dovXeve. In this case also the Vulgate translates all the three 
passages alike by the same verb, "servire." 

2 It is also remarkable that in all these cases, whether the 
Septuagint employs the word "dulia," or "latria," the word in the 
Hebrew is precisely the same, T3». That in the fifth century the 
words were synonymous is evident from Theodoret. I. 319. See 
Edit. Halle.— Index. 

' 3 covXevaovat. Vulg. " serviet." 

4 Matt. vi. 24. covXeveir. Vulg. "servire." 

5 ciovXevetv Qeo) ^wrrt. 



60 EVIDENCE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. [PART I. 

without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead 
works to serve ] the living God." 

The word " hyperdulia," now used to signify the 
worship proper to the Virgin Mary, as being a worship 
of a more exalted character than the worship offered to 
saints and angels, archangels, and cherubim and sera- 
phim, will not require a similar examination. The 
word was invented in later times, and has been used 
chiefly to signify the worship of the Virgin, and is of 
course found neither in the Scriptures, nor in any 
ancient classical or ecclesiastical author. 

1 Xarpsveiy Gew £Qvti. In each of these two cases the Vulgate 
uses "servire." 



PART I.— CHAPTER III. 



SECTION I. 

THE EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 

Before we enter upon the next branch of our proposed 
inquiry, allow me to premise that I am induced to 
examine into the evidence of Christian antiquity not 
by any misgiving, lest the testimony of Scripture might 
appear defective or doubtful; far less by any unworthy 
notion that God's word needs the additional support 
of the suffrages of man 1 . On the contrary, the voice 
of God in his revealed word is clear, certain, and indis- 
putable, commanding the invocation of Himself alone 
in acts of religious worship, and condemning any such 
departure from that singleness of adoration, as they are 

1 While some authors seem to go far towards the substitution of 
the fathers for the written word of God, others in their abhorrence 
of that excess have run into the opposite, fancying, as it would 
seem, that they exalt the Divine oracles just in the same proportion 
as they disparage the uninspired writers of the Church. The great 
body of the Church of England adhere to a middle course, and adopt 
that golden mean, which ascribes to the written Word its paramount 
authority, from which is no appeal, and yet honours Catholic tra- 
dition as the handmaid of the truth. 



62 THE EVIDENCE [PART I. 

seduced into, who invoke saints and angels. And it is 
a fixed principle in our creed, that where God's written 
word is clear and certain, human evidence cannot be 
weighed against it in the balance of the sanctuary. 
When the Lord hath spoken, well does it become the 
whole earth to be silent before him ; when the eternal 
Judge Himself hath decided, the witness of man bears 
on its very face the stamp of incompetency and pre- 
sumption. 

For myself I can say (what I have good hope these 
pages will of themselves evince) that no one can value 
the testimony of Christian tradition within its own legi- 
timate sphere more sincerely, or more highly, than the 
individual who is now soliciting your attention to the 
conclusions which he has himself drawn from it. 
When Scripture is silent, or where its meaning is 
doubtful, Catholic tradition is to me a guide, which I 
feel myself bound to follow with watchful care and 
submissive reverence. 

Now let it be for the present supposed, that instead 
of the oracles of God having spoken, as we believe 
them to have spoken, with a voice clear, strong, and 
uniform against the doctrine and practice of the invo- 
cation of saints and angels, their voices had been weak, 
doubtful, and vague ; in other words, suppose in this 
case the question had been left by the Holy Scriptures 
an open question, then what evidence would have been 
deducible from the writings of the primitive Church ? 
What testimony do the first years and the first ages 
after the canon of Scripture was closed, bear upon 
this point ? And here I would repeat the principle of 
inquiry, proposed above for our adoption in the more 
important and solemn examination of the Holy Volume 
itself. — We ought to endeavour to ascertain what may 






CHAP. III.] OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 63 

fairly and honestly be regarded as the real bearing of 
each author's remains, and not suffer the general tone 
and spirit of a writer to be counterbalanced by single 
expressions, which may be so interpreted as to convey 
an opposite meaning. Rather we should endeavour to 
reconcile with that general spirit and pervading ten- 
dency of a writer's sentiments any casual expressions 
which may admit of two acceptations. We adopt this 
principle in our researches into the remains of classical 
antiquity ; we adopt the same principle in estimating 
the testimony of a living witness. In the latter case, 
indeed, the ingenuity of the adverse advocate is often 
exercised in magnifying the discrepancies between some 
minor facts or incidental expressions with the broad 
and leading assertions of the witness, with a view 
to invalidate his testimony altogether, or at least to 
weaken the impression made by it. But then a wise 
and upright judge, assured of the truth of the evidence 
in the main, and of the integrity of the individual, will 
not suffer unessential, apparent inconsistencies to stifle 
and bury the body of testimony at large, but will either 
extract from the witness what may account for them, or 
show them to be immaterial. Inviting, therefore, your 
best thoughts to this branch of our subject, I ask you 
to ascertain, by a full and candid process of induction, 
this important and interesting point, — Whether we of 
the Anglican Church, by religiously abstaining from 
the presentation, in word or in thought, of any thing 
approaching prayer or supplication, entreaty, request, or 
any invocation whatever, to any other being except God 
alone, do or do not tread in the steps of the first Chris- 
tians, and adhere to the very pattern which they set; 
and whether members of the Church of Rome by ad- 
dressing angel or saint in any form of invocation seek- 



64 THE EVIDENCE [PART I. 

ing their aid, either by their intercession or other- 
wise, have not unhappily swerved decidedly and far 
from those same footsteps, and departed widely from 
that pattern ? 

In one point of view it might perhaps be preferable 
to enter at once upon our investigation, without previ- 
ously stating the conclusions to which my own inquiries 
have led ; but, on the whole, I think it more fair to 
make that statement, in order, that having the infer- 
ences already drawn placed before the mind, the 
inquirer may in each case weigh the several items of 
evidence bearing upon them separately, and more justly 
estimate its whole weight collectively at the last. 

After then having examined the passages collected 
by the most celebrated Roman Catholic writers, and 
after having searched the undisputed original works of 
the primitive writers of the Greek and Latin Churches, 
the conclusion to which I came, and in which every day 
of further inquiry and deliberation confirms me more 
and more in this : — 

In the first place, negatively, that the Christian 
writers, through the first three centuries and more, 
never refer to the invocation of saints and angels as a 
practice with which they were familiar: that they 
have not recorded or alluded to any forms of invocation 
of the kind used by themselves or by the Church in 
their clays ; and that no services of the earliest times 
contain hymns, litanies, or collects to angels, or to the 
spirits of the faithful departed. 

In the second place, positively, that the principles 
which they habitually maintain and advocate are irre- 
concileable with such a practice. 

In tracing the history of the worship of saints and 
angels, we proceed (gradually, indeed, though by no 



CHAP. III.] OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 66 

means at all periods, and through every stage, with 
equal rapidity,) from the earliest custom established 
and practised in the Church, — of addressing prayers to 
Almighty God alone for the sake of the merits of his 
blessed Son, the only Mediator and Intercessor between 
God and man, — to the lamentable innovation both of 
praying to God for the sake of the merits, and through 
the mediation of departed mortals, and of invoking those 
mortals themselves as the actual dispensers of the spi- 
ritual blessings which the suppliant seeks from above. 
It is not only a necessary part of our inquiry for ascer- 
taining the very truth of the case ; it is also curious 
and painfully interesting, to trace the several steps, 
one after another, beginning with the doctrine main- 
tained by various early writers, both Greek and Latin, 
that the souls of the saints are not yet reigning with 
Christ in heaven, and ending with the anathema of 
the Council of Trent, against all who should maintain 
that doctrine ; beginning with prayer and thanksgiving 
to Almighty God alone, and ending with daily prayers 
both to saints and angels ; one deviation from the 
strict line of religious duty, and the pure singleness of 
Christian worship, successively gliding into another, till 
at length the whole of Christendom, with a few re- 
markable exceptions, w T as seen to acquiesce in public 
and private devotions, which, if proposed, the whole of 
Christendom would once with unanimity have rejected. 

Before I offer to you the result of my inquiries as to 
the progressive stages of degeneracy and innovation in 
the worship of Almighty God, I would premise two 
considerations : 

First, I would observe, that the soundness of my con- 
clusion on the general points at issue does not depend 
at all on the accuracy of the arrangement of those stages 

F 



66 THE EVIDENCE [PART I. 

which I have adopted. Should any one, for example, 
think there is evidence that two or more of those pro- 
gressive steps, which I have regarded as consecutive, 
were simultaneous changes, or that any one which I 
have ranked as subsequent took rather the lead in 
order of time, such an opinion would not tend in the 
least to invalidate my argument ; the substantial and 
essential point at issue being this : Is the invocation of 
saints and angels, as now practised in the Church of 
Rome, agreeable to the primitive usage of the earliest 
Christians ? 

Secondly, I would observe, that the places and occa- 
sions most favourable for witnessing and correctly esti- 
mating the changes and gradual innovations in the 
worship of those early times, are the tombs of the 
martyrs, and the Churches in which their remains 
were deposited ; and at the periods of the annual cele- 
bration of their martyrdom, or in some instances at 
what was called their translation, — the removal, that is, 
of their mortal remains from their former resting-place 
to a church, for the most part dedicated to their 
memory. On these occasions the most extraordinary 
enthusiasm prevailed; sometimes the ardour of the 
worshippers, as St. Chrysostom ' tells us, approaching 
madness. But even at times of less excitement, by 
contemplating, immediately after his death, the acts 
and sufferings of the martyr, and recalling his words, 
and looks, and stedfast bearing, and exhorting each 
other to picture to themselves his holy countenance 
then fixed on them, his tongue addressing them, his 
sufferings before their eyes, encouraging all to follow 
his example, they began habitually to consider him as 
actually himself one of the faithful assembled round 
1 St.Chrys. Paris, 1718. Vol. xii. p. 330. 






CHAP. III.] OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 67 

his tomb. Hence they believed that he was praying 
with them as well as for them ; that he heard their 
eulogy on his merits, and was pleased with the honours 
paid to his memory : hence they felt sure of his good- 
will towards them, and his ability, as when on earth, to 
promote their welfare. Hence they proceeded, by a 
fatal step, first, to implore him to give them bodily 
relief from some present sufferings ; then invoking him 
to plead their cause with God, and to intercede for the 
supply of their spiritual wants, and the ultimate salva- 
tion of their souls; and, lastly, they prayed to him 
generally as himself the dispenser of temporal and 
spiritual blessings. 

The following then is the order in which the inno- 
vations in Christian worship seem to have taken place, 
being chiefly introduced at the annual celebrations of 
the martyrs : — 

1st. In the first ages confession and prayer and praise 
were offered to the Supreme Being alone, and that for 
the sake of his Son our only Saviour and Advocate : 
when mention was made of saint or martyr, it was to 
thank God for the graces bestowed on his departed 
holy ones when on earth, and to pray to God for grace 
that we might folloAV their good examples, and attain, 
through Christ, to the same end and crown of our 
earthly struggles. This act of worship was usually 
accompanied by a homily setting forth the Christian 
excellences of the saint, and encouraging the survivors 
so to follow him, as he followed Christ. 

2nd. The second stage seems to have been a prayer 
to Almighty God, that He would suffer the supplica- 
tions and intercessions 1 of angels and saints to prevail 

1 The Greek word Trpeafieia, " embassy," employed on such occa- 
sions, is still used in some eastern Churches in the same sense. 

f2 



68 THE EVIDENCE [PART I. 

with him, and bring down a blessing on their fellow- 
petitioners on earth ; the idea having spread among 
enthusiastic worshippers, as I have already observed, 
that the spirits of the saints were suffered to be pre- 
sent around their tombs, and to join with the faithful 
in their addresses to the throne of grace. 

3rd. The third stage seems to have owed its origin 
to orators constantly dwelling upon the excellences 
of the saints in the panegyrics delivered over their 
remains, representing their constancy and Christian 
virtues as superhuman and divine, and as having con- 
ferred lasting benefits on the Church. By these benefits 
at first was meant the comfort and encouragement of 
their good example, and the honour procured to the 
religion of the cross by their bearing witness to its 
truth even unto death ; but in process of time the habit 
grew of attaching a sort of mysterious efficacy to their 
merits ; hence this third gradation in religious worship, 
namely, prayers to God that " He would hear his sup- 
pliants, and grant their requests for the sake of his mar- 
tyred servant, and by the efficacy of that martyr's merits." 

4th. Hitherto, unauthorized and objectionable as 
the two last forms of prayer are, still the petitions in 
each case were directed to God alone. The next step 
swerved lamentably from that principle of worship, 
and the petitioners addressed their requests to angels 
and sainted men in heaven ; at first, however, confining 
their petitions to the asking for their prayers and inter- 
cessions with Almighty God. 

5th. The last stage in this progressive degeneracy of 
Christian worship was to petition the saints and angels, 
directly and immediately themselves, at first for the 
temporal, and afterwards for the spiritual benefits which 
the petitioners desired to obtain from heaven. For it 



CHAP. III.] OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 69 

is very curious, but not more curious than evident, 
that the worshippers seem for some time to have peti- 
tioned their saints for temporal and bodily benefits, 
before they proceeded to ask for spiritual blessings at 
their hands, or by their prayers '. 

Of these several gradations and stages we find traces 
in the records of Christian antiquity, after superstition 
and corruption had spread through Christian wor- 
ship, and leavened the whole. Of all of them we 
have lamentable instances in the present ritual of the 
Church of Rome, as we shall see somewhat at large 
when we reach that division of our inquiry. But 
from the beginning it was not so. In the earliest ages 
we find only the first of these forms of worship ex- 
emplified, and it is the only form now retained in the 
Anglican Ritual ; of which, among other examples, the 
following passage in the prayer for Christ's Church 
militant on earth supplies a beautiful specimen : " We 
bless Thy holy name for all Thy servants departed this 
life in Thy faith and fear ; beseeching Thee to give us 
grace so to follow their good examples, that with them 
we may be partakers of Thy heavenly kingdom : Grant 
this, O Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Me- 
diator and Advocate. Amen." 

We now proceed to examine the invaluable re- 
mains of Christian antiquity, not for the purpose 
of testing the accuracy of the above catalogue of gra- 
dations seriatim and in order of time ; but to satisfy 
ourselves on the question, whether the invocation of 
saints and angels prevailed from the first in the Chris- 
tian Church ; or whether it was an innovation intro- 
duced after pagan superstition had begun to mingle 
its poisonous corruptions with the pure worship of 
1 See Basil. Orat. in Mamanta Martyrem. 



70 THE EVIDENCE [PART I. 

Almighty God. And here, I conceive, few persons 
will be disposed to doubt, that if the primitive believers 
were taught by the Apostles to address the saints 
reigning in heaven and the holy angels, and the Virgin 
Mother of our Lord, with adoration and prayers, the 
earliest Christian records must have contained clear 
and indisputable references to the fact, and that 
undesigned allusions to the custom would inevitably 
be found offering themselves to our notice here and 
there. I do not mean that we should expect to meet 
with full and explicit statements either of the doctrine 
or the practice of the primitive Church in this parti- 
cular ; much less such apologies and elaborate defences 
of the practice as abound to the overflow in later times. 
But, what is more satisfactory in proof of the general 
and established prevalence of any opinions or customs, 
we should surely find expressions incidentally occurring, 
which implied an habitual familiarity with such opi- 
nions or customs. In every record, for example, of 
primitive antiquity, from the very earliest of all, ex- 
pressions are constantly meeting us which involve the 
doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity, the atoning sacri- 
fice of Christ's death, the influences of the Holy 
Spirit ; habitual prayer and praise offered to the 
Saviour of the world, as very and eternal God ; the 
holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper; 
with other tenets and practices of the Apostolic Church. 
It is impossible to study the remains of Christian anti- 
quity without being assured beyond the reach of doubt, 
that such were the doctrines and practice of the uni- 
versal Church from the days of the Apostles. Is the 
invocation of saints and angels and the blessed Virgin to 
be made an exception to this rule? Can it stand this 
test ? The great anxiety and labour of Roman Catholic 



CHAP. III.] OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 71 

writers to press the authors of every age to bear witness 
on their side in this behalf, proves that in their judgment 
no such exception is admissible. It is clearly beyond 
gainsaying, that if the present doctrine of the Church 
of Rome, with respect to the worship of angels and 
saints, as propounded by the Council of Trent ; and if 
her present practice as set forth in her authorized 
liturgies and devotional services, and professed by her 
popes, bishops, clergy, and people, had been the doc- 
trine and practice of the primitive Church, we should 
have found evident and indisputable traces of it in the 
earliest works of primitive antiquity, in the earliest 
liturgies, and in the forms of prayer and exhortations 
to prayer with which those works abound. It by no 
means follows that if some such allusions were partially 
discoverable, therefore the doctrines and practice must 
forthwith be pronounced to be apostolical ; but if no 
such traces can be found, their absence bears witness 
that neither did those doctrines nor that practice exist. 
If, for example, through the remains of the first three 
centuries we could have discovered no trace of the doc- 
trine or practice of holy Baptism and the Eucharist, we 
must have concluded that the doctrine and the practice 
were the offspring of later years. But when we read 
every where, in those remains, exhortations to approach 
those holy mysteries with a pure heart and faith un- 
feigned ; when we find rules prescribed for the more 
orderly administration of the rites ; in a word, when 
we perceive throughout as familiar references to these 
ordinances as could be now made by Catholics either 
of Rome or of England, while this would not of itself 
necessarily prove their divine origin, we should with 
equal plausibility question the existence of Jerusalem 
or Constantinople, or of David or Constantine, as we 



72 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

should doubt the prevalence both of the doctrine and 
practice of the Church in these particulars, even from 
the Apostles' days. 

With these principles present to our minds, I now 
invite you to accompany me in a review of the testi- 
monies of primitive Christian antiquity with regard to 
supplications and invocations of saints and angels, and 
of the blessed Virgin Mary, 



SECTION II.— CENTURY I. 

THE EVIDENCE OF THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 

It will be necessary for the satisfaction of all parties, 
that we examine, in the first place, those ancient 
writings which are ascribed to an Apostle, or to fellow- 
labourers of the Apostles; familiarly known as the 
writings of the Apostolic Fathers. They are H\e in 
number, Barnabas, Clement, Hermas, Ignatius, and 
Polycarp. Many able writers, as well of the Roman as 
of the Anglican communion, have discussed at large the 
genuineness of these writings ; and have come to very 
different results. Some critics are of opposite and ex- 
treme opinions, others ranging between them with 
every degree and shade of variation. Some of these 
works have been considered spurious ; others have been 
pronounced genuine; though, even these have been 
thought to be, in many parts, interpolated. The ques- 
tion, however, of their genuineness, though deeply 
interesting in itself, will not affect their testimony with 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 73 

regard to the subject before us \ They were all in ex- 
istence before the Council of Nicsea ; and we shall pro- 
bably not be wrong in assigning to the first two a date 
at the very lowest computation not less remote than 
the middle of the second century ; somewhere, it may 
be, at the furthest, about one hundred years after the 
death of our Lord. (a.d. 130—150.) With all their 
errors and blemishes and interpolations taken at the 
worst, after every reasonable deduction for defects in 
matter, taste, and style, the writings which are ascribed 
to the Apostolic Fathers are too venerable for their 
antiquity, too often quoted with reverence and affection 
by some who have been the brightest ornaments of the 
Christian Church, and possess too copious a store of 
genuine evangelical truth, sound principle, primitive 
simplicity, and pious sentiment, to be passed over with 
neglect by any Catholic Christian. The few extracts 

1 I do not think it suitable in this address to enter upon the diffi- 
cult field of inquiry, whether all or which of these works were the 
genuine productions of those whose names they bear ; and whether 
the Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas to which three of them are 
ascribed, were the Barnabas, Clement, and Hermas of whom express 
mention is made in the pages of Holy Scripture. I have deter- 
mined, in conducting my argument, to affix to them in each case 
the lowest proposed antiquity. The edition of Archbishop Wake, 
(who maintains the highest antiquity for these works, though I have 
not here adopted his translation,) may be consulted with much 
profit. 

Did the question before us relate to the genuineness and dates of 
these works, they could not, with any approach to fairness, be all 
five placed without distinction under the same category. The evi- 
dence for the genuineness of Clement, Ignatius in the shorter copy, 
and Polycarp, is too valuable to be confounded with that of the 
others, which are indisputably subject to much greater doubt. But 
this question has only an incidental bearing on our present inquiry, 
and will be well spared. 



74 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

made here will, I am assured, be not unacceptable to 
any one, who holds dear the religion of Christ '. 



THE EPISTLE OF ST. BARNABAS. 

In the work entitled The Catholic Epistle of Bar- 
nabas, which was written probably by a Jew converted 
to the Christian faith, about the close of the first cen- 
tury, or certainly before the middle of the second 2 , I 
have searched in vain for any thing like the faintest 
trace of the invocation of saint or angel. The writer 
gives directions on the subject of prayer; he speaks of 
angels as the ministers of God ; he speaks of the reward 
of the righteous at the day of judgment ; but he sug- 
gests not the shadow of a supposition, that he either 
held the doctrine himself which the Church of Rome 
now holds, or was aware of its existence among Chris- 
tians. In his very beautiful but incomplete summary 
of Christian duty 3 , which he calls " The Way of Light," 
we perceive more than one most natural opening for 
reference to that doctrine, had it been familiar to his 
mind. In the midst indeed of his brief precepts of 
religious and moral obligation, he directs the Christian 
to seek out every day " the persons of the saints," but 
they are our fellow-believers on earth ; those saints or 
holy ones, for administering to whose necessities, the 
Scripture assures us that God will not forget our work 
and labour of love 4 : these the author bids the Chris- 

1 The edition of the works of these Apostolic Fathers used here 
is that of Cotelerius as revised by Le Clerc, Antwerp, 1698. 

2 Archbishop Wake considers this Epistle to have been written 
by St. Barnabas to the Jews, soon after the destruction of Jerusalem. 

3 Sect. 18, 19. p. 50, 51, 52. 4 Heb. vi. 10. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 75 

tians search out daily, for the purposes of religious 
intercourse, and of encouragement by the word. 

The following interesting extracts shall conclude our 
reference to this work : — 

" There are two ways of doctrine and authority, one 
of light, the other of darkness ; and the difference 
between the two ways is great. Over the one are 
appointed angels of God, conductors of the light ; over 
the other, angels of Satan : and the one (God) is Lord 
from everlasting to everlasting; the other (Satan) is 
ruler of the age of iniquity. The way of light is this 
.... Thou shalt love Him that made thee ; thou shalt 
glorify Him that redeemed thee from death. Thou 
shalt be single in heart, and rich in spirit. Thou shalt 
not join thyself to those who are walking in the path 
of death. Thou shalt hate to do what is displeasing to 
God ; thou shalt hate all hypocrisy. Thou shalt enter- 
tain no evil counsel against thy neighbour. Thou shalt 
not take away thy hand from thy son or thy daughter, 
but shalt teach them the fear of the Lord from their 
youth. Thou shalt communicate with thy neighbour in 
all things, and call not things thine own. Thou shalt 
not be of a froward tongue, for the mouth is the snare 
of death. To the very utmost of thy power keep thy 
soul chaste. Do not open thine hand to receive, and 
close it against giving. Thou shalt love as the apple of 
thine eye every one who speaketh to thee the word of 
the Lord. Call to remembrance the day of judgment, 
night and day. Thou shalt search out every day the 
persons of the saints ] ; both meditating by the word, 

1 There is much obscurity in the phraseology of this passage : 
EK^r]Tif(jeLc icaB" EKaaT-qv tjjuepav ra 7rp6<7u)ira twv ayitov' kcli eta 
Xoyov aKOTriojv' /cat ttooevojiei oq elg to —apciKuXiaai, kcu iJteXerwv elg 
owru 4>v%riv rw Xoyw. In the corresponding exhortation among the 



76 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

and proceeding to exhort them, and anxiously caring 
to save a soul by the word. Thou shalt preserve what 
thou hast received, neither adding thereto, nor taking 
therefrom. Thou shalt not come with a bad conscience 
to thy prayer." 

The closing sentences contain this blessing : " Now 
God, who is the Lord of all the world, give to you 
wisdom, skill, understanding, knowledge of his judg- 
ments, with patience. And be ye taught of God ; seek- 
ing what the Lord requires of you, and do it, that ye 

may be saved in the day of judgment The Lord 

of glory and of all grace be with your spirit. Amen." 

THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS. 

This work, which derives its title from the circum- 
stance of an angelic teacher being represented as a 
shepherd, is now considered by many to have been the 
production of Hernias, a brother of Pius, Bishop of 
Rome \ though others are persuaded that the work is of 
a much earlier date 2 . The author speaks of guardian 
angels and of evil angels, and he speaks much of prayer; 
but not the faintest hint shows itself throughout the 
three books, of which the work consists, that he had 

Apostolical Constitutions (book vii. ch. 9), the expression is, 
"Thou shalt seek the person {jpoaioivov) of the saints, that thou 
mayest find rest (or find refreshment, or refresh thyself) (IV ett- 
avairavri to~iq \6yoi£ avrwv) in their words." The author seems evi- 
dently to allude to the reciprocal advantage derived by Christians 
from religious intercourse. 

1 Ecclesiastical writers refer the appointment of Pius, as Bishop 
of Rome, to the year 153. 

2 Archbishop Wake thinks it not improbable that this book was 
written by the same Hermas, of whom mention is made by St. Paul. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 77 

any idea of prayer being addressed to any created being, 
whether saint or angel. On the evidence of this writer 
I will not detain yon much longer than by the trans- 
lation of a passage as it is found in the Greek quotation 
from Hernias, made by Antiochus (Homil. 85), on a 
point the most nearly, of all that I can find, connected 
with the immediate subject of our inquiry. The Latin 
is found in the second book, ninth mandate. It contains 
sound spiritual advice, of universal application. 

" Let us then remove from us double-heartedness 
and faint-hearted ness, and never at all doubt of suppli- 
cating any thing from God ; saying within ourselves, 
' How can I, who have been guilty of so many sins 
against Him, ask of the Lord and receive ? ' But with 
thine whole heart turn to the Lord, and ask of Him 
without doubting ; and thou shalt know his great mercy, 
that He will not forsake thee, but will fulfil the desire 
of thy soul. For God is not as men are, a rememberer 
of evil, but is Himself one who remembers not evil, and 
is moved with compassion towards his creature. Do 
thou, therefore, cleanse thy heart of doubt, and ask 
of Him, and thou shalt receive thy request. But when 
thou doubtest, thou shalt not receive. For they who 
doubt towards God are the double-hearted, and shall 
receive nothing whatever of their desires. For those 
who are whole in the faith, ask every thing, trusting in 
the Lord, and they receive because they ask ' nothing- 
doubting. And if thou shouldest be tardy in receiving, 
do not doubt in thy mind because thou dost not receive 
soon the request of thy soul. For the cause of the 
tardiness of thy receiving is some trial, or some trans- 
gression which thou knowest not of. Do thou then 

1 See St. James i. 6. 



78 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

not cease to offer the request of thy soul, and thou shalt 
receive it. But if thou grow faint in asking, accuse 
thyself, and not the Giver. For double-heartedness is 
a daughter of the devil, and works much mischief to- 
wards the servants of God. Do thou, therefore, take 
to thyself the faith that is strong." 

In the twelfth section of the ninth Similitude, in the 
third book, in the midst of much to the same import, 
and of much, too, which is strange and altogether 
unworthy of the pen from which the previous quota- 
tion proceeded, he thus writes, as the Latin records his 
words, the Greek of this passage having been lost. 

" These all are messengers to be reverenced for their 
dignity. By these, therefore, as it were by a wall, the 
Lord is girded round. But the gate is the Son of God, 
who is the only way to God. For no one shall enter in 
to God except by his Son 1 ." 

On the subject of prayer, I cannot refrain from refer- 
ring you to a beautiful similitude, illustrative of the 
powerful and beneficial effects of the intercession of 
Christians for each other. The author compares a rich 
man, abounding in deeds of charity, to a vine full of 
fruit supported by an elm. The elm seems not to bear 
fruit at all ; but by supporting the vine, which, without 
that support, would bear no fruit to perfection, it may 
be said to bear fruit itself. So the poor man, who has 
nothing to give in return for the rich man's fruits of 
charity, beyond the support which his prayers and 
praises ascending to God in his behalf will obtain, con- 
fers a far more substantial benefit on the rich man 
than the most liberal outpouring of alms from the 
rich can confer on the poor 2 . Yet the writer, who 

1 Book iii. Simil. 2. 2 Ibid. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 79 

had formed such strong notions of the benefits mutu- 
ally obtained by the prayers of Christians for each 
other, says not a word about the intercession of saints 
and angels, nor of our invoking them. He will not 
suffer us to be deterred by any consciousness of our 
own transgressions from approaching God Himself, 
directly and immediately ourselves; but He bids us 
draw near ourselves to the throne and mercy seat of 
our heavenly Father. 



ST. CLEMENT, BISHOP OF ROME. 

It is impossible to read the testimony borne by 
Eusebius, and other most ancient writers, to the cha- 
racter and circumstances of Clement, without feeling a 
deep interest in whatever production of his pen may 
have escaped the ravages of time. "Third from the 
Apostles," says Eusebius \ " Clement obtained the 
bishopric of Rome ; one who had seen the Apostles 
and conversed with them, and had still the sound of 
their preaching in his ears, and their tradition before 
his eyes ; — and not he alone, for many others 2 at that 
time were still living, who had been taught by the 
Apostles. In the time of this Clement, no small schism 
having arisen among the brethren in Corinth, the 
Church in Rome sent a most important letter to the 
Corinthians, urging them to return to peace, renewing 

1 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. v. c. 6. 

2 See St. Paul to the Philippians, iv. 3. "And I entreat thee 
also, true yoke-fellow, help those women which laboured with me 
in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellow-labourers, 
whose names are in the book of life." 



80 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

their faith, and [reminding them of] the tradition which 
had been so lately received from the Apostles." 

Of the many works which have been attributed to 
Clement, it is now generally agreed, that one, and only 
one, can be safely received as genuine, whilst some 
maintain that even that one is not altogether free from 
interpolations, if not itself spurious \ But though we 
must believe the other works to have been assigned 
improperly to Clement ; yet I have not thought it safe 
to pass them by unexamined, both because some of 
them are held in high estimation by writers of the 
Church of Rome, and especially because whatever pen 
first composed them, of their very great antiquity there 
can be entertained no reasonable doubt. Indeed, the 
Apostolical Canons, and the Apostolical Constitutions, 
both ascribed to Clement as their author, acting under 
the direction of the Apostolic Council, stand first 
among the records of the Councils received by the 
Church of Rome. 

To Clement's first Epistle to the Corinthians, now 
regarded by many as the only genuine work of that 
primitive writer, the date of which is considered by 
many to be about a.d. 90, Jerome bears this very inter- 
esting testimony in his book on illustrious men 2 : 

" He, Clement, wrote in the person of the Church of 
Rome, to the Church in Corinth, a very useful epistle, 
which is publicly read in some places ; in its character 
agreeing with St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, not 
only in the sense, but even in the words : and indeed 
the resemblance is very striking in each." 

1 Archbishop Wake concludes that this first Epistle was written 
shortly after the end of Nero's persecution, and before a.d. 70. 

2 Catalogus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum, Jeron., vol. iv, part ii. 
p. 107, edit. Benedict. Paris, 1706. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 81 

It is impossible to read this Epistle of one of the 
earliest bishops of Christ's flock in the proper frame of 
mind, without spiritual edification. A tone of primitive 
simplicity pervades it, which is quite delightful. His 
witness to the redemption by the atoning sacrifice of 
Christ's death, and to the life-giving influences of the 
Spirit of grace, is clear, repeated, and direct. His 
familiar acquaintance with the ancient Scriptures is 
very remarkable; though we might not always ac- 
quiesce in the critical accuracy of his application. His 
reference to the Epistles written by St. Paul to the 
same Church at Corinth that he was then addressing, 
affords one of those unobtrusive and undesigned col- 
lateral evidences to the Holy Scriptures, which are as 
abundant in the primitive writings, as they are invalu- 
able. No one can read this Epistle of Clement, with- 
out acquiescing in the expression of Jerome, that it is 
" very admirable." 

Perhaps in the present work the Epistle of Clement 
becomes even more interesting from the circumstance 
of his having been a bishop of the Church founded by 
the Apostles themselves in the very place where that 
Church exists, to whose members this inquiry is more 
especially addressed. In his writings I have searched 
diligently for every expression which might throw 
light upon the opinions and practice either of the 
author or of the Church in whose name he wrote ; of the 
Church which he addressed, or of the Catholic Church 
at large to which he refers, on the subject of our in- 
quiry. So far, however, from any word occurring, which 
could be brought to bear in favour of the adoration of 
saints and angels, or of any supplication to them for 
their succour or their prayers, the peculiar turn and 
character of his Epistle in many parts seems to supply 

G 



82 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

more than negative evidence against the prevalence of 
any such belief or practice. Clement speaks of angels ; 
he speaks of the holy men of old, who pleased God, and 
were blessed, and were taken to their reward ; he 
speaks of prayer ; he urges to prayer ; he specifies the 
object of our prayers ; he particularizes the subjects of 
our prayers ; but there is not the most distant allusion 
to the saints and angels as persons to whom supplica- 
tions could be addressed. Pray for yourselves (such 
are the sentiments of this holy man) ; pray for your 
brethren who have fallen from their integrity ; pray to 
God Almighty, for the sake of his Son, and your prayer 
will be heard and granted. Of any other intercessor 
or advocate, angel, saint, or Virgin Mother; of any 
other being to whom the invocations of the faithful 
should be offered, Clement seems to have had no know- 
ledge. Could this have been so, if those who received the 
Gospel from the very fountain-head had been accus- 
tomed to pray to those holy men who had finished their 
course on earth, and were gone to their reward in 
heaven ? Clement invites us to contemplate Enoch, 
and Abraham, and David, and Elijah, and Job, with 
many of their brethren in faith and holiness ; he bids 
us look to them with reverence and gratitude, but it is 
only to imitate their good examples. He tells us to 
think of St. Paul and St. Peter and their brethren in 
faith and holiness ; but it is in order to listen to their 
godly admonitions, and to follow them in all pious obe- 
dience to the will of our heavenly Father, as they fol- 
lowed Christ. I must content myself with a very few 
brief extracts from this Epistle ' : 



1 I am induced to mention here that two Epistles, ascribed to St. 
Clement, written in Arabic, and now appended to Wetstein's Greek 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 83 

Ch. 21. "Take heed, beloved, lest the many loving- 
kindnesses of the Lord prove our condemnation, if we 
do not live as is worthy of him, nor do with one 
accord what is good and well-pleasing in his sight. . . . 
Let us consider how nigh to us he is, and that nothing 
of our thoughts or reasonings is concealed from him. 
Justice it is that we should not become deserters from 
his will. . . . Let us venerate the Lord Jesus, whose 
blood was given for us." 

Ch. 29. " Let us then approach him in holiness of 
soul, lifting up holy and undefiled hands towards him ; 
loving our merciful and tender Father who hath made 
us a portion of his elect." 

Testament (x^msterdam, 1751), are believed by many to be genuine, 
whilst others say they are spurious. At all events they are produc- 
tions of the earliest times. The manuscript was procured at Con- 
stantinople. I have examined the Latin translation carefully, and 
in some points submitted my doubts to a very learned Syriac scholar. 
The general subject is the conduct of those who have professed celi- 
bacy, whilst of the invocation of saints no trace whatever is to be 
found. The passages most closely bearing on the point before us 
are to the following effect : 

The writer urges Christians to be careful to maintain good works, 
especially in the cause of charity, visiting the sick and afflicted, 
praying with them, and praying for them, and persevering always in 
prayer ; asking and seeking of God in joy and watchfulness, without 
hatred or malice. In the Lord's husbandry, he says, it well becomes 
us to be good workmen, who are like the Apostles, imitating the 
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, who are ever anxious for the 
salvation of men. 

" Therefore (he adds, at the close of the first of these Epistles) 
let us look to and imitate those faithful ones, that we may behave 
ourselves as is meet in the Lord. So shall we serve the Lord, and 
please him, in righteousness and justice without a stain. Finally, 
farewell in the Lord, and rejoice in the Lord, all ye holy ones. 
Peace and joy be with you from God the Father, by Jesus Christ 
our Lord." 

G 2 



84 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

Cli. 36. " This is the way, beloved, in which we find 
Jesus Christ our salvation, the chief-priest of our 
offerings, our protector, and the succourer of our 
weakness. By him let us look stedfastly to the 
heights of heaven ; by him let us behold his most high 
and spotless face : by him the eyes of our heart are 
opened ; by him our ignorant and darkened minds 
shoot forth into his marvellous light ; by him the 
Supreme Governor willed that we should taste immor- 
tal knowledge : who, being the brightness of his mag- 
nificence, is so much greater than the angels, as he 
hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name 
than they." 

Ch. 49. " He who hath love in Christ, let him 
keep the commandments of Christ. Who can tell of 
the bond of the love of God ? The greatness of his 
goodness who can adequately express? . . . Love unites 
us to God. . . . By love the Lord took us ; by the love 
which he had for us Christ our Lord gave his blood for 
us by the will of God, and his flesh for our flesh, and 
his life for our lives." 

Ch. 56. " Let us pray for those who are in any trans- 
gression, that meekness and humility may be granted 
to them ; that they may submit, not to us, but to the 
will of God ; for thus to them will the remembrance 
towards God and the saints, with mercies, be fruitful 
and perfect '." 

Ch. 58. "The all-seeing God, the Sovereign Ruler 

1 The original is obscure, and has been variously rendered, uvriog 
yap £<7-cu avroLQ 'iyicapiroc ku\ reXeia f) 7rpo£ top Qeov Kai tovq uyiovg 
/jlet oiKTip/jiuJv fivtia. The Editor refers his readers to Rom. xii. 
13. "Distributing to the necessity of saints." The received trans- 
lation is this, " Sic enim erit ipsis fructuosa et perfecta quae est apud 
Deum et sanctos cum misericordia recordatio." 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 85 

of spirits, and the Lord of all flesh, who hath chosen 
the Lord Jesus, and us through him, to be a peculiar 
people ; grant to every soul that calleth on his glorious 
and holy name, faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffer- 
ing, self-control, purity, and temperance, to the good 
pleasure of his name, through our high-priest and 
protector Jesus Christ ; through whom to him be glory 
and majesty, dominion and honour, now and for ever 
and ever, world without end. Amen." 



SAINT IGNATIUS. 

This martyr to the truth as it is in Jesus sealed that 
truth with his blood about seventy years after the death 
of our Lord. From Antioch in Syria, of which place 
he was bishop, he was sent to the imperial city, Rome ; 
and there he ended his mortal career by a death 
which he had long expected, and which he was pre- 
pared to meet not only with resignation to the Divine 
will, but even with joy and gladness. His Epistles are 
written with much of the florid colouring of Asiatic 
eloquence ; but they have all the raciness of originality, 
and they glow with that Christian fervour and charity 
which compels us to love him as a father and a friend, 
a father and friend in Christ. The remains of this 
apostolic father I have carefully studied, with the 
single view of ascertaining whether any vestige, how- 
ever faint, might be traced in him of the invocation of 
saints and angels ; but I can find none. Neither here, 
nor in the case of any of the apostolical fathers, whose 
remains we are examining, have I contented myself with 
merely ascertaining that they bear no direct and palpable 
evidence ; I have always endeavoured to find, and then 
thoroughly to sift, any expressions which might with 



86 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

the slightest plea of justification be urged in testimony 
of primitive belief and practice sanctioning the invoca- 
tion of saints. I find none. Brethren of the Church 
of Rome, search diligently for yourselves ; " I speak as 
to wise men : Judge ye what I say." 

The remains of Ignatius offer to us many a passage 
on which a Christian pastor would delight to dwell : 
but my province here is not to recommend his works 
to the notice of Christians ; I am only to report the 
result of my inquiries touching the matter in question ; 
and as bearing on that question, the following extracts 
will not be deemed burdensome in this place : — 

In his Epistle to the Ephesians 1 , exhorting Christians 
to united prayer, he says, " For if the prayer of one or 
two possesses such strength, how much more shall the 
prayer both of the bishop and of the whole Church?" 
" For there is one physician of a corporeal and a spiri- 
tual nature, begotten and not begotten ; become God 
in the flesh, true life in death 2 , both from Mary and 
from God ; first liable to suffering, and then incapable 
of suffering." 

Here we must observe that these Epistles of Igna- 
tius have come down to us also in an interpolated form, 
abounding indeed with substitutions and additions, but 
generally resembling paraphrases of the original text. 
Of the general character of that supposititious work, two 
passages corresponding with our quotations from the 
genuine productions of Ignatius may give a sufficiently 
accurate idea. The first passage above quoted is thus 
paraphrased 3 : " For if the prayer of one or two possesses 

1 Page 13. § 5—7. 

2 In the majority of the manuscripts the reading is, " in an im- 
mortal true life." 

3 Page 47. c. 5. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 87 

such strength that Christ stands among them, how 
much more shall the prayer both of the bishop and of 
the whole Church, ascending with one voice to God, 
induce him to grant all their requests made in Jesus 
Christ?" The paraphrase of the second ! is more full: 
" Our physician is the only true God, ungenerated and 
unapproachable; the Lord of all things, but the Father 
and Generator of the only-begotten Son. We have 
also as our physician our Lord God, Jesus Christ, who 
was before the world, the only-begotten Son and the 
Word, but also afterwards man of the Virgin Mary; 
'for the Word was made flesh.' He who was incor- 
poreal, now in a body ; he who could not suffer, now 
in a body capable of suffering ; he who was immortal 
in a mortal body, life in corruption — in order that he 
might free our immortal souls from death and corrup- 
tion, and heal them, diseased with ungodliness and evil 
desires as they were." 

It must here be observed, that though these are 
indisputably not the genuine works of Ignatius, but 
were the productions of a later age, yet no trace is 
to be found in them of the doctrine, or practice, of 
the invocation of saints. In this point of view their 
testimony is nothing more nor less than that of an 
anonymous paraphrast, who certainly had many oppor- 
tunities of referring to that doctrine and practice ; but 
who by his total silence seems to have been as ignorant 
of them as the author himself whose works he is para- 
phrasing. 

To return to his genuine works : In his Epistle to the 
Magnesians 2 we find these expressions : " For as the 
Lord did nothing without the Father, being one with 

1 Page 48. c. 7. 2 Page 19. § 7. 



88 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

him, neither by himself, nor by his Apostles ; so nei- 
ther do ye any thing without the bishop and priests, 
nor attempt to make any thing appear reasonable to 
yourselves individually. But at one place be there 
one prayer, and one supplication, one mind, one hope 
in love, in blameless rejoicing : Jesus Christ is one ; 
than which nothing is better. All, then, throng as to 
one temple, as to one altar, as to one Jesus Christ, who 
proceeded from one Father, and is in one, and returned 
to one." Again he says, " Remember me in your 
prayers, that I may attain to God. I am in need of 
your united prayer in God, and of your love." 

In his Epistle to the Trallians, he expresses himself 
in words to which no Anglican Catholic would hesitate 
to respond : " Ye ought to comfort the bishop, to the 
honour of God, and of Jesus Christ, and of the Apos- 
tles '." He speaks in this Epistle with humiJity and 
reverence of the powers and hosts of heaven ; but he 
makes no allusion to any religious worship or invoca- 
tion of them. 

The following extract is from his Epistle to the Phil- 
adelphians : i( My brethren, I am altogether poured 
forth in love for you ; and in exceeding joy I make you 
secure ; yet not I, but Jesus Christ, bound in whom I 
am the more afraid, as being already seized 2 ; but your 
prayer to God will perfect me, that I may obtain the 
lot mercifully assigned to me. Betaking myself to the 
Gospel as to the flesh of Jesus, and to the Apostles as 
the presbytery of the Church; let us also love the 
prophets, because they also have proclaimed the Gospel, 
and hoped in him, and waited for him ; in whom also 



1 Page 25. § 12. 

2 This clause is very obscure, and perhaps imperfect. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. .89 

trusting, they were saved in the unity of Jesus Christ, 
being holy ones worthy of love and admiration, who 
have received testimony from Jesus Christ, and are num- 
bered together in the Gospel of our common hope '." 

I am induced to add the paraphrase on this passage 
also. " My brethren, I am very much poured out in 
loving you, and with exceeding joy I make you secure ; 
not I, but by me, Jesus Christ, in whom bound I am 
the more afraid. For I am yet not perfected, but your 
prayer to God will perfect me ; so that I may obtain 
that to which I was called, flying to the Gospel as the 
flesh of Jesus Christ, and to the Apostles as the pres- 
bytery of the Church. And the prophets also I love, as 
persons who announce Christ, as partaking of the same 
spirit with the Apostles. For just as the false prophets 
and false apostles have drawn one and the same wicked 
and deceitful and seducing spirit, so also the prophets 
and the apostles, one and the same holy spirit, good, 
leading, true, and instructing. For one is the God of 
the Old and the New Testament. One is Mediator 
between God and man, for the production of the crea- 
tures endued with reason and perception, and for the 
provision of what is useful, and adapted to them : and 
one is the Comforter who wrought in Moses and the 
prophets and the apostles. All the saints therefore 
were saved in Christ, hoping in him, and waiting for 
him ; and through him they obtained salvation, being 
saints worthy of love and of admiration, having obtained 
a testimony from Jesus Christ in the Gospel of our 
common hope 2 ." 

In his Epistle to the Romans he speaks to them of 
bis own prayer to God, and repeatedly implores them 

1 Page 32. § 5. 2 Page 81. § 5. 



90 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

to pray for him. " Pray to Christ for me, that by these 
instruments [the teeth of the wild beasts] I may become 
a sacrifice of God. I do not, as Peter and Paul, com- 
mand you: they were Apostles, I am a condemned 
man. They were free ; but I am still a servant. Yet 
if I suffer, I shall become the freedman of Jesus Christ, 
and shall rise again free : and now in my bonds I learn 
to covet nothing 1 ." Again he says, "Remember the 
Church In Syria in your prayers \" He prays for his 
fellow-labourers in the Lord : he implores them to 
approach the throne of grace with supplications for 
mercy on his own soul. Of prayer to saint or angel 
he says nothing. Of any invocation offered to them by 
himself or his fellow-believers, Ignatius appears en- 
tirely ignorant. 

SAINT POLYCARP. 

The only remaining name among those, whom the 
Church has reverenced as apostolical fathers, is the 
venerable Polycarp. He suffered martyrdom by fire, 
at a very advanced age, in Smyrna, about one hun- 
dred and thirty years after his Saviour's death. Of 
Polycarp, the apostolical bishop of the Catholic Church 
of Smyrna, only one Epistle has survived. It is ad- 
dressed to the Philippians. In it he speaks to 
his brother Christians of prayer, constant, incessant 
prayer ; but the prayer of which he speaks is supplica- 
tion addressed only to God 3 . He marks out for our 
imitation the good example of St. Paul and the other 
Apostles ; assuring us that they had not run in vain, 

1 Page 28. § 4. 2 Page 30. § 9. 

3 he))aeatv alrovfAevoi tov 7rapTS7r67rrr]v Qevi\ Sect. 7. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 91 

but were gone to the place prepared for them by the 
Lord, as the reward of their labours. But not one 
word does he utter bearing upon the invocation of 
saints in prayer ; he makes no allusion to the Virgin 
Mary. 

Before we close our examination of the recorded 
sentiments of the apostolical fathers on the immediate 
subject of our inquiry, we must refer, though briefly, 
to the Epistle generally received as the genuine let- 
ter from the Church of Smyrna to the neighbouring 
Churches, narrating the martyrdom of Polycarp. It be- 
longs, perhaps, more strictly to this place than to the 
remains of Eusebius, because, together with the senti- 
ments of his contemporaries who witnessed his death 
and dictated the letter, it purports to contain the very 
words of the martyr himself in the last prayer which he 
ever offered upon earth. With some variations from the 
copy generally circulated, this letter is preserved in the 
works of Eusebius ! . On the subject of our present 
research the evidence of this letter is not merely nega- 
tive. So far from countenancing any invocation of 
saint or martyr, it contains a remarkable and very in- 
teresting passage, the plain common-sense rendering of 
which bears decidedly against all exaltation of mortals 
into objects of religious worship. The letter, however, 
is too well known to need any further preliminary 
remarks; and we must content ourselves with such 
references and extracts as may appear to bear most 
directly on our subject. 

" The Church of God, which is in Smyrna, to 
the Church in Philomela, and to all the branches 2 



1 Euseb. Paris, 1628, dedicated to the Archbishop by Franciscus 
Vigerus. 2 Trapoiriaiq. 



92 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

of the holy Catholic Church dwelling in any place, 
mercy, peace, and love of God the Father, and our 
Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied V 

"The Proconsul, in astonishment, caused it to be 
proclaimed thrice, Polycarp has confessed himself to 
be a Christian. On this they all shouted, that the 
Proconsul should let a lion loose on Polycarp. But the 
games were over, and that could not be done : they 
then with one accord insisted on his being burnt 
alive." 

Polycarp, before his death, offered this prayer, or 
rather perhaps we should call it this thanksgiving, to 
God for his mercy in thus deeming him worthy to 
suffer death for the truth, " Father of thy beloved and 
blessed Son Jesus Christ, by whom we have received 
our knowledge concerning thee, the God of angels and 
power, and of the whole creation, and of the whole 
family of the just, who live before thee; I bless 
thee because thou hast deemed me worthy of this 
day and this hour to receive my portion among the 
number of the martyrs, in the cup of Christ, to the 
resurrection both of soul and body in the incorruption 
of the Holy Ghost ; among whom may I be received 
before thee this day in a rich and acceptable sacrifice, 
even as thou, the true God, who canst not lie, foreshow- 
ing and fulfilling, hast beforehand prepared. For this, 
and for all I praise thee, I bless thee ; I glorify thee, 
through the eternal high-priest Jesus Christ thy beloved 
Son, through whom to thee, with him in the Holy Ghost, 
be glory both now and for future ages. Amen 



2 " 



1 Book i. Hist. iv. c. xv. p. 163. 

2 I cannot help suggesting a comparison between the prayer of 
this primitive martyr bound to the stake, with the prayer of Thomas 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 93 

After his death, the narrative proceeds, " But the 
envious adversary of the just observed the honour put 
upon the greatness of his testimony, [or of his mar- 
tyrdom ',] and his blameless life from the first, and 
knowing that he was now crowned with immortality, 
and the prize of undoubted victory, resisted, though 
many of us desired to take his body, and have fellow- 
ship with his holy flesh. Some then suggested to 
Nicetes, the father of Herod, and brother of Dalce, to 
entreat the governor not to give his body, ' Lest,' said 
he, ' leaving the crucified One they should begin to 
worship this man 2 ;' and this they said at the sugges- 
tion and importunity of the Jews, who also watched us 
when we would take the body from the fire. This 
they did, not knowing that we can never either leave 
Christ, who suffered for the salvation of all who will 
be saved in all the world, or worship any other 3 . For 
him being the Son of God we worship 4 , but the martyrs, 
as disciples and imitators of our Lord, we worthily love 5 , 
because of their pre-eminent 6 good-will towards their 

Becket, of Canterbury, as stated in the ancient services for his day, 
when he was murdered in his own cathedral, to which we shall here- 
after refer at length. The comparison will impress us with the dif- 
ference between religion and superstition, between the purity of 
primitive Christian worship, and the unhappy corruptions of a de- 
generate age. " To God and the Blessed Mary, and Saint Diony- 
sius, and the holy patrons of this Church, I commend myself and 
the Church." 

1 to /jiyedoc avrov rfjg jxaprvniac. 2 aifieiv. 

3 The Paris translation adds " ut Deum." 

4 TTpofftcvrov/Jier. 

5 aJ$ib)Q ayairutfxev. Ruffinus translates it by " diligimus et vene- 
ramur," and it is so quoted by Bellarmin. 

6 avvirtpftXrirov. 



94 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

own king and teacher, with whom may we become 
partakers and fellow-disciples." 

"The centurion, seeing the determination of the 
Jews, placed him in the midst, and burnt him as their 
manner is. And thus we collecting his bones, more 
valuable than precious stones, and more esteemed than 
gold, we deposited them where it was meet. There \ 
as we are able, collecting ourselves together in rejoicing 
and gladness, the Lord will grant to us to observe the 
birth-day of his martyrdom, for the remembrance of 
those who have before undergone the conflict, and for 
exercise and preparation of those who are to come." 

In this relic of primitive antiquity, we have the 
prayer of a holy martyr, at his last hour, offered to 
God alone, through Christ alone. Here we find no 
allusion to any other intercessor; no commending of 
the dying Christian's soul to saint or angel. Here 
also we find an explicit declaration, that Christians 
offered religious worship to no one but Christ, whilst 
they loved the martyrs, and kept their names in grate- 
ful remembrance, and honoured even their ashes when 
the spirit had fled. Polycarp pleads no other merits ; he 
seeks no intercession ; he prays for no aid, save only his 
Redeemer's. Here too we find, that the place of a 
martyr's burial was the place which the early Christians 
loved to frequent ; but then we are expressly told with 
what intent they met there, — not, as in later times, to 
invoke the departed spirit of the martyr, but to call to 
mind, in grateful remembrance, the sufferings of those 
who had already endured the awful struggle ; and by 

1 ujq Svvarov i]fxlv crvvayofxlyotg kv ayaWuiaei xcti X n P9- napifci- 6 
KvpioQ ettiteXuv H]v tov fiaprvpiov avrov rffxipav yeridXiov, eig re riov 
TrporiQXriKOTWV ixvi)fxr]V, Kal tojv fxeWovrtov affKrjrriv te kcu kroi/iaaiay. 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 95 

their example to encourage and prepare other soldiers 
of the cross thereafter to fight the good fight of faith ; 
assured that they would be more than conquerors 
through Him who loved them. 



We have now examined those works which are 
regarded by us all, whether of the Roman or Angli- 
can Church, as the remains of apostolical fathers, — 
Christians who, at the very lowest calculation, lived 
close upon the Apostles' time, and who, according to 
the firm conviction of many, had all of them con- 
versed with the Apostles, and heard the word of truth 
from their mouths. I do from my heart rejoice with 
you, that these holy men bear direct, l clear, and irre- 
fragable testimony to those fundamental truths which 
the Church of Rome and the Church of England both 
hold inviolate — the doctrine of the ever-blessed Tri- 
nity, with its essential and inseparable concomitants, 
the atonement by the blood of a crucified Redeemer, 
and the vivifying and sanctifying influences of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Supposing for a moment no trace of such fundamental 
doctrines could be discovered in these writings, would 
not the absence of such vestige have been urged by 
those who differ from us, as a strong argument that 
the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity was an innova- 
tion of a later date ; and would not such an argument 
have been urged with reason? How, in plain honesty, 
can we avoid coming to the same conclusion on the 
subject of the invocation of saints? If the doctrine and 
the practice of praying to saints,, or to angels, for their 
succour, or even their intercession, had been known 



96 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

and recognised, and approved and acted upon by the 
Apostles, and those who were the very disciples of the 
Apostles, not only deriving the truth from their written 
works, but having heard it from their own living tongue, 
— in the nature of things would not some plain, pal- 
pable, intelligible, and unequivocal indications of it have 
appeared in such writings as these ; writings in which 
much is said of prayer, of intercessory prayer, of the 
one object of prayer, of the subjects of prayer, of the 
nature of prayer, the time and place of prayer, the spirit 
in which we are to offer prayer, and the persons for 
whom we ought to pray ? Does it accord with common 
sense, and common experience, with what we should 
expect in other cases, with the analogy of history, and 
the analogy of faith, that we should find a profound and 
total silence on the subject of any prayer or invocation 
to saints and angels, if prayer or invocation of saints 
and angels had been recognised, approved, and practised 
by the primitive Church ? 

At the risk of repetition, or surplusage, I would beg 
to call your attention to one point in this argument. 
I am far from saying that no practice is apostolical 
which cannot be proved from the writings of these 
apostolical fathers : that would be a fallacy of an oppo- 
site kind. I ground my inference specifically and 
directly on the fact, that these writers are full, and 
copious, and explicit, and cogent on the nature and 
duty of prayer and supplications, as well for public as 
for private blessings ; and of intercessions by one Chris- 
tian for another, and for the whole race of mankind 
no less than for mercy on himself; and yet though 
openings of every kind palpably offered themselves 
for a natural introduction of the subject, there is in no 
one single instance any reference or allusion to the 






CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 97 

invocation of saint or angel, as a practice either ap- 
proved or even known. 

When indeed I call to mind the general tendency 
of the natural man to multiply to himself the objects 
of religious worship, and to create, by the help of 
superstition, and the delusive workings of the imagi- 
nation, a variety of unearthly beings whose wrath he 
must appease, or whose favour he may conciliate ; 
when I reflect how great is the temptation in un- 
enlightened or fraudulent teachers to accommodate the 
dictates of truth to the prejudices and desires of those 
whom they instruct, my wonder is rather that Chris- 
tianity was so long preserved pure and uncontaminated 
in this respect, than that corruptions should gradually 
and stealthily have mingled themselves with the sim- 
plicity of Gospel worship. That tendency is plainly 
evinced by the history of every nation under heaven : 
Greek and Barbarian, Egyptian and Scythian, would 
have their gods many, and their lords many. From 
one they would look for one good ; on another they 
would depend for a different benefit, in mind, body, 
and estate. Some were of the highest grade, and to 
be worshipped with supreme honours ; others were of a 
lower rank, to whom an inferior homage was addressed ; 
whilst a third class held a sort of middle place, and 
were approached with reverence as much above the 
least, as it fell short of the greatest. In the heathen 
world you will find exact types of the dulia, the hyper- 
dulia, and the latria, with which unhappily the prac- 
tical theology of modern Christian Rome is burdened. 
Indeed, my wonder is, that under the Christian dispen- 
sation, when the household and local gods, the heathen's 
tutelary deities, and the genii, had been dislodged by the 
light of the Gospel, saints and angels had not at a much 

H 



98 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I 

earlier period been forced by superstition to occupy 
their room. 

We shall be led to refer to some passages in the ear- 
liest Christian writers, especially in Origen, which bear 
immediately on this point, representing in strong but 
true colours the futility of deeming a multitude of 
inferior divinities necessary for the dispensation of bene- 
fits throughout the universe, whose good offices we 
must secure by acts of attention and worship. I anti- 
cipate the circumstance in this place merely to show 
that the tendency of the human mind, clinging to a 
variety of preternatural protectors and benefactors, was 
among the obstacles with which the first preachers of 
the Gospel had to struggle. In the proper place I shall 
beg you to observe how hardly possible it would have 
been for those early Christian writers, to whom I have 
referred above, to express themselves in so strong, so 
sweeping, and so unqualified a manner, had the prac- 
tice of applying by invocation to saints and angels then 
been prevalent among the disciples of the Cross. 

We may, I believe, safely conclude, that in these 
primitive writings, which are called the works of the 
Apostolical Fathers, there is no intimation that the 
present belief and practice of the Church of Rome 
were received, or even known by Christians. The evi- 
dence is all the other way. Indeed, Bellarmin, though 
he appeals to these remains for other purposes, and 
boldly asserts that " all the fathers, Greek and Latin, 
with unanimous consent, sanction and teach the ad- 
oration of saints and angels," yet does not refer to a 
single passage in any one of these remains for establish- 
ing this point. He cites a clause from the spurious 
work strangely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, 
which was the forged production, as the learned are all 



CHAP. III.] THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS. 99 

agreed, of some centuries later ; and he cites a pious 
sentiment of Ignatius, expressing his hope that by mar- 
tyrdom he might go to Christ, and thence he infers that 
Ignatius believed in the immediate transfer of the soul 
from this life to glory and happiness in heaven, though 
Ignatius refers there distinctly to the resurrection 1 . 
But Bellarmin cites no passage whatever from these 
remains to countenance the doctrine and practice of 
the adoration of saints and angels. 

1 Epist. ad Rom. c. iv. See above, p. 90. 



h2 



PART I. —CHAPTER IV. 



SECTION I. 

THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIN MARTYR \ 

Justin, who flourished about the year 150, was trained 
from his early youth in all the learning of Greece and of 
Egypt. He was born in Palestine, of heathen parents ; 
and after a patient examination of the evidences of 
Christianity, and a close comparison of them with the 
systems of philosophy with which he had long been 
familiar, he became a disciple of the Cross. In those sys- 
tems he found nothing solid, or satisfactory; nothing 
on which his mind could rest. In the Gospel he gained 
all that his soul yearned for, as a being destined for 
immortal life, conscious of that destiny, and longing for 
its accomplishment. His understanding was convinced, 
and his heart was touched; and regardless of every 
worldly consideration, and devoted to the cause of truth, 
he openly embraced Christianity ; and before kings and 
people, Jews and Gentiles, he pleaded the religion of 
the crucified One with unquenchable zeal and astonish- 
ing power. The evidence of such a man on any doctrine 

1 Benedictine ed. Paris, 1742. 



CHAP. IV.] THE EVIDENCE OF JUSTIN MARTYR. 101 

connected with our Christian faith must be looked to 
with great interest. 

In the volumes which contain Justin's works we find 
" Books of Questions," in which many inquiries, doubts, 
and objections, as well of Jews as of Gentiles, are stated 
and answered. It is agreed on all sides that these are 
not the genuine productions of Justin, but the work of 
a later hand. Bellarmin appeals to them, acknowledg- 
ing at the same time their less remote origin. The 
evidence, indeed, appears very strong, which would lead 
us to regard them as the composition of a Syrian Chris- 
tian, and assign to them the date of the fifth century; 
and as offering indications of the opinions of Christians 
at the time of their being put together, they are cer- 
tainly interesting documents. When fairly quoted, the 
passages alleged in defence of the invocation of saints, 
so far from countenancing the practice, assail irresistibly 
that principle, which, with other writers, Bellarmin 
himself confesses to be the foundation of that doctrine. 
For these Books of Questions assert that the souls of 
the faithful are not yet in glory with God, but are re- 
served in a separate state, apart from the wicked, await- 
ing the great day of final and universal doom. In 
answer to Question 60, the author distinctly says : — 
"Before the resurrection the recompense is not made 
for the things done in this life by each individual 1 ." 

In reply to the 75th Question, inquiring into the 
condition of man after death, this very remarkable 
answer is returned : — 

" The same relative condition which souls have with 
the body now, they have not after the departure from 
the body. For here all the circumstances of the union 

1 Qusestiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, p. 464. 



102 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

are in common to the just and the unjust, and no dif- 
ference is in them in this respect, — as to be born and 
to die, to be in health and to be in sickness, to be rich 
and to be poor, and the other points of this nature. 
But after the departure from the body, forthwith takes 
place the distinction of the just and the unjust: for 
they are conducted by the angels to places correspond- 
ing with their deserts : the souls of the just to paradise, 
where is the company and the sight of angels and arch- 
angels, and also, by vision, of the Saviour Christ, accord- 
ing to what is said, * Being absent from the body, and 
present with the Lord ;' and the souls of the unjust to 
the places in hades, according to what is said of Nebu- 
codonosor king of Babylon, ' Hades from beneath hath 
been embittered, meeting thee.' — And in the places 
corresponding with their deserts they are kept in ward 
unto the day of the resurrection and of retribution V 

I much regret to observe that Bellarmin omits to 
quote the latter part of this passage, stopping short 
with an " &c." at the words hades, or inferorum loca, 
although the whole of the waiter's testimony in it turns 
upon the very last clause 2 . 

The next question (76) runs thus : " If the retribu- 
tion of our deeds does not take place before the resur- 
rection, what advantage accrued to the thief that his 
soul was introduced into paradise ; especially since 
paradise is an object of sense, and the substance of the 
soul is not an object of sense? 

" Answer. It was an advantage to the thief entering 
into paradise to learn by fact the benefits of the faith by 
which he was deemed worthy of the assembly of the 

1 Page 469. 

2 Bellarmin, c. iv. p. 851. " Improborum autem ad inferorum 
loca." 



CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 103 

saints, in which he is kept till the day of judgment and 
restitution ; and he has the perception of paradise by 
that which is called intellectual perception, by which 
souls see both themselves and the things under them, 
and moreover also the angels and demons. For a soul 
doth not perceive or see a soul, nor an angel an angel, nor 
a demon a demon ; except that according to the said 
intellectual perception they see both themselves and 
each other, and moreover also all corporeal objects 1 ." 

On this same point I must here subjoin a passage 
from one of Justin's own undisputed works. In his 
Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, sect. 5, he says 2 , 
" Nevertheless I do not say that souls all die ; for that 
were in truth a boon to the wicked. But what ? That 
the souls of the pious remain somewhere in a better 
place, and the unjust and wicked in a worse, waiting for 
the time of judgment, when it shall be : thus the one 
appearing worthy of God do not die any more ; and the 
others are punished as long as God wills them both to 
exist and to be punished." 

Not only so ; Justin classes among renouncers of the 
faith those who maintain the doctrine which is now 
acknowledged to be the doctrine of the Church of 
Rome, and to be indispensable as the groundwork of 
the adoration of saints. In his Trypho, sect. 80, he 
states his sentiment thus strongly : " If you should 
meet with any persons called Christians, who confess 
not this, but dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, 
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and say there 
is no resurrection of the dead 3 , but that their souls, at 
the very time of their death, are taken up into heaven ; 
do not regard them as Christians V 

1 Page 470. 2 Page 107. . 3 vetcpaiv. * Page 178. 



104 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

This, according to Bellarmin's own principle, is 
fatal evidence : if the redeemed and the saints departed 
are not in glory with God already, they cannot inter- 
cede with him for men. On the subject, however, of 
worship and prayer, Justin Martyr has left us some 
testimonies as to the primitive practice, full of interest 
in themselves, independently of their bearing on the 
points at issue. At the same time I am not aware of a 
single expression which can be so construed as to imply 
the doctrine or practice among Christians of invoking 
the souls of the faithful. He speaks of public and pri- 
vate prayer ; he offers prayer, but the prayer of which 
he speaks, and the prayer which he offers are to God 
alone ; and he alludes to no advocate or intercessor in 
heaven, except only the eternal Son of God himself. 
In his first Apologia 1 (or Defence addressed to the 
Emperor Antoninus Pius) he thus describes the pro- 
ceedings at the baptism of a convert : — 

" Now, we will explain to you how we dedicate 
ourselves to God, being made new by Christ .... As 
many as are persuaded, and believe the things which by 
us are taught and declared to be true, and who promise 
that they can so live, are taught to pray and implore, 
with fasting, forgiveness of God for their former sins, 
we ourselves joining with them in fasting and prayer ; 
and then they are taken by us to a place where there 
is water, and by the same manner of regeneration as we 
ourselves were regenerated, they are regenerated ; for 
they undergo this washing in the water in the name of 
God the Father and Lord of all, and of our Saviour 
Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost." 

The following is his description of the Christian 

1 Apol. i. sect.-61. page 79. 



CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 105 

Eucharist, subsequently to the baptism of a convert l : 
" Afterwards we conduct him to those who are called 
brethren, where they are assembled together to offer 
earnestly our united prayers for ourselves and for the 
enlightened one [the newly baptized convert], and for 
all others every where, that we, having learned the 
truth, may be thought worthy to be found in our 
deeds good livers, and keepers of the commandments, 
that we may be saved with the everlasting salvation. 
Having ceased from prayers, we salute each other with 
a kiss ; and then bread is brought to him who presides 
over the brethren, and a cup of water and wine ; and 
he taking it, sends up prayer and praise to the Father 
of all, through the name of the Son and the Holy 
Spirit; and offers much thanksgiving for our being 
thought by him worthy of these things. When he 
has finished the prayers and thanksgivings, all the 
people present respond, saying, ' Amen.' Now, Amen 
in the Hebrew tongue means, ' So be it.' And when 
the presider has given thanks, and all the people have 
responded, those who are called Deacons among us 
give to every one present to partake of the bread and 
wine and water that has been blessed, and take some 
away for those who were not present." 

The following is Justin's account of their worship 
on the Lord's day 2 : "In all our oblations we bless the 
Creator of all things, through his Son Jesus Christ, and 
through the Holy Spirit. And upon the day called 
Sunday, there is an assembly of all who dwell in the 
several cities or in the country, in one place where the 
records of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets 
are read, as time allows. When the reader has ceased, 

1 Sect. 65. p. 82. 2 Sect. 67. p. 83. 



106 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

the presider makes a discourse for the edification of the 
people, and to animate them to the practice of such 
excellent things [or the imitation of such excellent 
persons]. At the conclusion we all rise up together and 
pray ; and, as we have said, when we have ceased from 
prayer, the bread and wine and water are brought for- 
ward, and the presider sends up prayer and thanksgiving 
alike, to the utmost of his power. And the people 
respond, saying, Amen. And then is made to each 
the distribution and participation of the consecrated 
elements \ And of those who have the means and will, 
each according to his disposition gives what he will ; 
and the collected sum is deposited with the presider, 
and he aids the orphans and widows, and those who 
through sickness or other cause are in need, and 
those in bonds, and strangers ; and, in a word, he be- 
comes the reliever of all who are in want." 

In Justin Martyr I am unable to find even a single 
vestige of the invocation of Saints. With regard to 
Angels, however, there is a very celebrated passage 2 , 
to which Bellarmin and others appeal, as conclusive evi- 
dence that the worship of them prevailed among Chris- 
tians in his time, and was professed by Justin himself. 

Justin, in his first Apology, having stated that the 
Christians could never be induced to worship the 
demons, whom the heathen worshipped and invoked, 
proceeds thus 3 : " Whence also we are called Atheists, 

1 ev^apLaTr]{)ivTh)v. 2 Page 47. 

3 The genuineness of this passage has been doubted. But I see 
no ground for suspicion that it is spurious. It is found in the manu- 
scripts of Justin's works ; of which the most ancient perhaps are 
in the King's Library in Paris. I examined one there of a remote 
date. 



CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 107 

[men without God] ; and we confess that with regard 
to such supposed gods we are atheists, but not so with 
regard to the most true God, the Father of justice and 
temperance, and of the other virtues without any mix- 
ture of evil. But both Him and the Son, who came 
from Him, and taught these things to us, and the host 

OF THE OTHER GOOD ANGELS ACCOMPANYING AND MADE 

like, and the Prophetic Spirit, we reverence and wor- 
ship, honouring them in reason and truth ; and without 
grudging, delivering the doctrine to every one who is 
willing to learn as we were taught." Governing the 
words " the host of the other good angels," as much as 
the words " Him" and " His Son," and " the prophetic 
Spirit," by the verbs " we reverence and worship," Bel- 
larmin and others 1 maintain, that Justin bears testi- 
mony in this passage to the worship of angels. That 
this cannot be the true interpretation of Justin's words 
will be acknowledged, I think, by every Catholic, 
whether Anglican or Roman, when he contemplates it 
in all its naked plainness ; all will revolt from it as im- 
pious and contrary to the principles professed by the 
most celebrated and honoured among Roman Catholic 
writers. This interpretation of the passage, when 
analysed, implies the awful thought, that we Chris- 
tians pay to the host of angels, God's ministers and 
our own fellow-servants, the same reverence, worship, 
and honour which we pay to the supreme Father, and 
his ever-blessed Son, and the Holy Spirit, without any 
difference or inequality. No principles of interpret- 
ation can avoid that inference. 



1 The Benedictine Editor puts this note in the margin, "Justin 
teaches that angels following the Son are worshipped by Christians." 
— Preface, p. xxi. 



108 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

"Him the most true Father of righteousness we 
reverence and worship, honouring him in reason and 
truth." 

" The Son who came from him, and taught us these 
things, we reverence and worship, honouring him in 
reason and truth." 

" The army of the other good angels accompanying 
and assimilated, we reverence and worship, honouring 
them in reason and truth." 

"The Prophetic Spirit we reverence and worship, 
honouring him in reason and truth." 

Is it possible to conceive that any Christian would 
thus ascribe the same religious worship to a host of 
God's creatures, which he would ascribe to God, as 
God? "We are accused," said Justin, "of being 
atheists, of having no God. How can this be? We 
do not worship your false gods, but we have our own 
most true God. We are not without a God. We 
have the Father, and the Son, and the Good Angels, 
and the Holy Spirit." If Justin meant that they 
honoured the good angels, but not as God, that would 
be no answer to those who called the Christians atheists. 
The charge was, that " they had no God." The answer 
is, " We have a God ;" and then Justin describes the 
God of Christians. Can the army of angels be included 
in that description ? If they are, then they are made 
to share in the adoration, worship, homage, and rever- 
ence of the one only God Most High ; if they are not, 
then Justin does not answer the objectors '. 

1 And surely if Justin had intended to represent the holy angels 
as objects of religious worship, he would not so violently have 
thrust the mention of them among the Persons of the ever-blessed 
Trinity, assigning to them a place between the second and third 
Persons of the eternal hypostatic union. 



CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 109 

To evade this charge of impiety, some writers (among 
others, M. Maran, the Benedictine editor of Justin,) 
have attempted to draw a distinction between the two 
verbs in this passage, alleging that the lower degree of 
reverence expressed by the latter applies to the angels ; 
whilst the former verb, implying the higher degree of 
worship, alone relates to the Godhead. But this dis- 
tinction rests on a false assumption; the two words 
being used equally to convey the idea of the highest 
religious worship ! . 

But in determining the true meaning of an obscure 
passage, grammatically susceptible of different accepta- 
tions, the author himself is often his own best inter- 
preter. If he has expressed in another place the same 
leading sentiment, yet without the same obscurity, and 
free from all doubt, the light borrowed from that pas- 

1 For example, the first word (aefio/j.tda), " we reverence," is used 
to mean the whole of religious worship, as well with regard to the 
true God, as with reference to Diana * ; whilst the second word 
(TrpoffKvrovfiev), " we worship," is constantly employed in the same 
sense of divine worship, throughout the Septuagint f, (with which 
Justin was most familiar,) and is used in the Epistle to the Hebrews 
to signify the worship due from the angels themselves to God, '''Let 
all the angels of God worship him." The very same word is also 
soon after employed by Justin himself (sect. xvi. p. 53) to mean the 
whole entire worship of the Most High God : " That we ought to 
worship (irpofficvre'ip) God alone, Christ thus proves," &c. More- 
over, the word which Justin uses at the close of the sentence, 
" honouring them" (n^wvree), is the identical word four times em- 
ployed by St. John J, in the same verse, to record our Saviour's say- 
ing, " That all men might honour the Son, even as they honour the 
Father ; he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, 
who hath sent him." 

* Acts xviii. 7. 13 ; xix. 27. 

•f Exod. xxxiv. 14. Ps. xciv. (xcv.).6. 1 Sam. (1 Kings) xv. 25. 
2 Kings (4 Kings) xvii. 36. Heb. i. 6. J John v. 23. 



110 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

sage will frequently fix the sense of the ambiguous 
expression, and establish the author's consistency. On 
this acknowledged principle of criticism, I would call 
your attention to a passage in the very same treatise 
of Justin, a few pages further on, in which he again 
defends the Christians against the same charge of 
being atheists, and on the self-same ground, " that 
they worship the Father who is maker of all ; secondly, 
the Son proceeding from Him ; and thirdly, the Holy 
Spirit." In both cases he refers to the same attributes 
of the Son as the teacher of Christian truth, and of the 
Holy Ghost, as the Prophetic Spirit. His language 
throughout the two passages is remarkably similar, 
and in the expressions on the true meaning of which 
we have already dwelt, it is most strikingly identical ; 
but by omitting all allusion to the angels after the Son, 
his own words proving that the introduction of them 
could have no place there, (for he specifies that the 
third in order was the Holy Spirit,) Justin has left us 
a comment on the passage under consideration conclu- 
sive as to the object of religious worship in his creed. 
The whole passage is well worth the attention of the 
reader. The following extracts are the only parts 
necessary for our present purpose : — 

" Who of sound mind will not confess that we are 
not Atheists, reverencing as we do the Maker of the 
Universe. . . . and Him, who taught us these things, 
and who was born for this purpose, Jesus Christ, cru- 
cified under Pontius Pilate .... instructed, as we are, 
that He is the Son of the True God, and holding Him 
in the second place ; and the Prophetic Spirit in the 
third order, we with reason honour 1 ." 

1 Sect. xiii. p. 50. 



CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. Ill 

The impiety apparently inseparable from Bellarmin's 
interpretation has induced many, even among Roman 
Catholic writers, to discard that acceptation altogether, 
and to substitute others, which, though involving no 
grammatical inaccuracy, are still not free from diffi- 
culty. ] After weighing the passage with all the means 
in my power, and after testing the various interpret- 
ations offered by writers, whether of the Church of 
Rome or not, by the sentiments of Justin himself, and 
others of the same early age, I am fully persuaded that 
the following is the only true rendering of Justin's 
words : 

" Honouring in reason and truth, we reverence and 
worship HIM, the Father of Righteousness, and the 
Son (who proceeded from Him, and instructed in these 
things both ourselves and the host of the other good 
angels following Him and being made like unto Him), 
and the Prophetic Spirit." 

This interpretation is strongly confirmed by the pro- 
fessed sentiments both of Justin and of his contempo- 



1 Le Nourry (Apparatus ad Bibliothecam Maximam Veterum Pa- 
trum. Paris, 1697. vol. ii. p. 305), himself a Benedictine, rejects 
Bellarmin's and his brother Benedictine Maran's interpretation, and 
conceives Justin to mean, that the Son of God not only taught us 
those truths to which he was referring, with regard to the being and 
attributes of God, but also taught us that there were hosts of spiri- 
tual beings, called Angels ; good beings, opposed to the demons of 
paganism. Bishop Kaye, in his excellent work on Justin Martyr, 
which the reader will do well to consult (p. 53), tells us he was some- 
times inclined to think that Justin referred to the host of good angels 
who should surround the Son of God when he should come to judge the 
world. The view adopted by myself here was recommended by Grabe 
and by Langus, called The Interpreter of Justin; whilst Petavius, a 
Jesuit, though he does not adopt it, yet acknowledges that the Greek 
admits of our interpretation. Any one who would pursue the subject 



112 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

raries, with regard to the Son of God and the holy 
angels. 

It was a principle generally received among the 
early Christians, that whatever the Almighty did, 
either by creation or by the communication of his 
will, on earth or in heaven, was done by the Eternal 
Word. It was God the Son, the Logos, who created 
the angels \ as well as ourselves ; it was He who 
spoke to Moses, to Abraham, and to Lot ; and it was 
He who conveyed the Supreme will, and the know- 
ledge of the only true God, to the inhabitants of the 
world of spirits. Agreeably to this principle, in the 
passage under consideration, Justin affirms (not that 
Christians revered and worshipped the angels, but), 
that God the Son, whom Christians worshipped as the 
eternal Prophet, Angel, and Apostle, of the Most 
High, instructed not only us men on earth, but also 
the host of heavenly angels 2 , in these eternal verities, 

further may with advantage consult the preface to the Benedictine 
edition referred to in this work. Lumper Hist. Part ii. p. 225. 
Augustae Vindelicorum, 1784. Petavius, Theologicorum Dogmatum 
torn. vi. p. 298. lib. xv. c. v. s. 5. Antwerp, 1700. 

The whole passage is thus rendered by Langus (as read in Lum- 
per), " Verum hunc ipsum, et qui ab eo venit, atque ista nos et 
aliorum obsequentium exaequatorumque ad ejus voluntatem bonorum 
Angelorum exercitum docuit, Filium, et Spiritum ejus propheticum, 
colimus et adoramus." 

1 Thus Tatian (p. 249 in the same edition of Justin), " Before 
men were prepared, the Word was the Maker of angels." 

2 " The other good angels." Justin (Apol. i. sect. Ixiii. p. 81.) 
reminds us that Christ, the first-begotten of the Father, Himself 
God, was also an Angel (or Messenger), and an Apostle ; and here 
Christ, as the Angel of the Covenant and the chief Apostle, is 
represented as instructing the other angels in the truths of the 
economy of grace, just as he instructed his Apostles on earth, — "As 
my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 



CHAP. IV.] JUSTIN MARTYR. 113 

which embrace God's nature and the duty of his crea- 
tures \ 

It is evident that Justin himself considered the host 
of angels to be equally with ourselves in a state of 
probation, requiring divine instruction, and partaking 
of it. It is also evident that many of his contempo- 
raries entertained the same views ; among others, Ire- 
nseus and Origen 2 . I will not swell this dissertation 
by quoting the passages at length ; though the passages 
referred to in the margin will well repay any one's 
careful examination. But I cannot refrain from ex- 
tracting the words in which each of those writers 
confirms the view here taken of Justin's sentiments. 

Irenseus, for example, says distinctly, "The Son 
ever, anciently and from the beginning co-existing with 
the Father, always reveals the Father both to angels 
and archangels, and powers, and excellencies, and to 
all to whom God wishes to make a revelation 3 ." And 
not less distinctly does Origen assert the same thing, — 
" Our Saviour therefore teaches, and the Holy Spirit \ 



1 Trypho, § 141. p. 231. 

2 Irenaeus, book ii. c. 30. p. 163. Origen, Horn, xxxii. in Joann. 
§ 10. vol. iv. p. 430. 

3 So far did some of the early Christians include the hosts of 
angels within the covenant of the Gospel, that Ignatius (Epist. ad 
Smyrn. § 6. p. 36.) does not hesitate to pronounce that the angels 
incur the Divine judgment, if they do not receive the doctrine of the 
atonement : " Let no one be deceived. The things in heaven, and 
the glory of angels, and the powers visible and invisible, if they do 
not believe on the blood of Christ — for them is judgment." They 
seem to have founded their opinion on the declaration of St. Paul 
(Eph. hi. 10): "That now to the principalities and powers in 
heavenly places might be made known through the Church the 
manifold wisdom of God." 

4 Origen, Horn, in Luc. xxiii. vol; iii. p. 961. 

I 



114 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

who spake in the prophets, teaches not only men, but 
also angels and invisible excellencies." 

I will only add one more ancient authority, in con- 
firmation of the view here taken of Justin's words. 
The passage is from Athenagoras ] , and seems to be 
the exact counterpart of Justin's paragraph. 

"Who would not wonder on hearing us called 
Atheists ? we who call the Father God, and the 
Son God, and the Holy Ghost, showing both their 
power in the unity, and their distinction in order. 
Nor does our theology rest here ; but we say, more- 
over, that there is a multitude of angels and ministers 
whom God, the Maker and Creator of the world, by 
the word proceeding from him, distributed and 
appointed, both about the elements, and the heavens, 
and the world, and the things therein, and the good 
order thereof 2 ." 

I have already stated my inability to discover a 
single word in Justin Martyr which could be brought 
to sanction the invocation of saints ; but his testimony 
is far from being merely negative. He admonishes us 
strongly against our looking to any other being for 
help or assistance, than to God only. Even when 
speaking of those who confide in their own strength, 
and fortune, and other sources of good, he says, in per- 
fect unison with the pervading principles and associa- 
tions of his whole mind, as far as we can read them 
in his works, without any modification or any ex- 
ception in favour of saint or angel : " In that Christ 



1 Athenagoras presented his defence, in which these words occur, 
to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and his son Commodus, in the 
year 177. 

2 Sect. 10. p. 287. edit. Just. Mart. 



CHAP. IV.] IRENiEUS. 115 

said, ' Thou art my God, go not far from me,' He at 
the same time taught, that all persons ought to hope in 
God, who made all things, and seek for safety and 
health from Him alone '." 



SECTION II. 



Justin sealed his faith by his blood about the year 
165; and next to him, in the noble army of martyrs, 
we must examine the evidence of Irenaeus, Bishop of 
Lyons. Of this writer's works a very small proportion 
survives in the original Greek ; but that little is such 
as might well make every scholar and divine lament 
the calamity which theology and literature have sus- 
tained by the loss of the author's own language. It is 
not perhaps beyond the range of hope that future 
researches may yet recover at least some part of the 
treasure. Meanwhile we must avail ourselves with 
thankfulness of the nervous though inelegant copy of 
that original, which the Latin translation affords; im- 
perfect and corrupt in many parts, as that copy evi- 
dently is. This, however, is not the place for recom- 
mending a study of the remains of Irenseus ; and every 
one at all acquainted with the literature of the early 
Church, knows well how valuable a store of ancient 
Christian learning is preserved even in the wreck of 
his works. 

On the subject of the invocation of saints, an appeal 

1 Trypho, § 102. p. 197. 2 Ed. Paris, 1710. 

12 



116 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

has been made only to a few passages in Irenseus. With 
regard, indeed, to one section, I would gladly have been 
spared the duty of commenting upon the unjustifiable 
mode of citing his evidence adopted by Bellarmin. It 
forces upon our notice an example either of such in- 
accuracy of quotation as would shake our confidence 
in him as an author, or of such misrepresentation as 
must lower him in our estimation as a man of integrity. 
Bellarmin asserts, building upon it as the very foun- 
dation-stone of his argument for the invocation of saints, 
that the souls of the saints are removed immediately 
on their dissolution by death, without waiting for the 
day of judgment, into the presence of God, and the 
enjoyment of Him in heaven. This point, he says, 
must first be established ; for if they are not already in 
the presence of God, they cannot pray for us, and 
prayer to them would be preposterous '. Among the 
authorities cited by him to establish this point is the 
evidence of Irenseus 2 (book i. c. 2). Bellarmin quotes 
that passage in these words : " To the just and righte- 
ous, and to those who keep his commandments, and 
persevere in his love, some indeed from the beginning, 
but some from repentance, he giving life confers by 
way of gift incorruption, and clothes them with eter- 
nal glory." To the quotation he appends this note : 
■ ■ Mark ' to some,' that is, to those who presently after 
baptism die, or who lay down their life for Christ ; or 
finally to the perfect is given immediately life and eter- 
nal glory ; to others not, except after repentance, that 
is, satisfaction made in another world 3 ." 

1 Bell. lib. i. c. 4. vol. ii. p. 851. 

2 See Benedictine ed. Paris, 1710. book i. c. 10. p. 48. 

3 Agreeably to the principles laid down in my preface, I will not 
here allude to the doctrine of purgatory, on which Bellarmin con- 



CHAP. IV.] IREN^US. 117 

Here I am compelled to confess that I never found 
a more palpable misquotation of an author than this. 
I will readily grant that Bellarmin may have quoted 
from memory, or have borrowed from some corrupt 
version of the passage ; and that he has unintentionally 
changed the moods of two verbs from the subjunctive 
to the indicative, and inadvertently changed the entire 
construction and the sense of the passage. But then 
what becomes of his authority as a writer citing testi- 
mony? 

Irenseus in this passage is speaking not of what our 
Lord does now, but what he will do at the last day ; 
he refers only to the second coming of Christ to judg- 
ment at the final consummation of all things, not using 
a single expression which can be made by fair criticism 
to have any reference whatever to the condition of souls 
on their separation from the body. I have consulted 
the old editions, some at least published before the 
date of Bellarmin's work ; the suggestion offering itself 
to my mind, that perhaps the ancient translation was 
in error, from which he might have quoted. But I 
cannot find that to have been the case. The old Latin 
version of this passage agreeing very closely with the 
Greek still preserved in Epiphanius \ and quoted by 
Roman Catholic writers as authentic, conveys this mag- 
nificent though brief summary of the Christian faith : 

"The Church spread throughout the whole world, 
even to the ends of the earth, received both from the 
Apostles and their disciples that faith which is in one 

siders this passage to bear; nor will I say one word on the inter- 
mediate state of the soul between death and the resurrection, on 
which I am now showing that the words of Irenaeus cannot at all be 
made to bear. 

1 Haeres. xxxi. c. 30. 



118 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

God omnipotent, who made heaven and earth, the sea, 
and all things therein, and in one Jesus Christ, the Son 
of God, for our salvation made flesh, and in the Holy 
Ghost, who by the prophets announced the dispen- 
sations (of God % and the Advent, and the being born 
of a Virgin, and the suffering, and the resurrection from 
the dead, and the bodily ascension into heaven of the 
beloved Jesus Christ our Lord, and his coming from 
heaven in the glory of the Father for the consummation 
of all things, and for raising again all flesh of the human 
race, that, in order that 2 , to Christ Jesus our Lord 
and God, and Saviour and King, according to the good 
pleasure of the invisible Father, every knee should bow 
of things in heaven and in earth, and under the earth, 
and that every tongue should confess to Him, and that 
he should execute just judgment on all : that he should 
send the spirits of wickedness, and the transgressing 
and rebel angels, and the impious and unjust, and 
wicked and blaspheming men into eternal fire ; but to 
the just and righteous, and to those who keep his com- 
mandments, and persevere in his love, — some indeed 
from the beginning, and some from their repentance, — 
he granting life, by way of gift, should confer in cor- 
ruption, and should clothe them with eternal glory." 
The words, "some from the beginning," "others 
from their repentance," can refer only to the two con- 
ditions of believers ; some of whom have grace to keep 
the commandments, and persevere in the love of God 
from the beginning of their Christian course, whilst 
others, for a time, transgress and wax cold in love, but 
by repentance, through God's grace, are renewed and 

1 The words " of God" are in the Latin, but not in the Greek. 

2 iva. 'lit.' 



CHAP. IV.] 



IREN^US. 



119 



restored to their former state of obedience and love. 
On both these classes of Christians, according to the 
faith as here summed up by Irenseus, our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, when He comes in glory for the 
consummation of all things, and for the resurrection of 
the dead, will coufer glory and immortality. No inge- 
nuity of criticism can extract from this passage any 
allusion to the intercession of saints, or to their being 
with God before the end of the world ! . But I am not 



It will be well to see the words of Bellarmin and those of the 



translation side by side : 
Bellarmin, lib. i. c. iv. p. 851. 

" Quartus Irenaeus, lib. i. c. 2. 

' Justis, inquit, et aequis, et 
praecepta ejus servantibus et in 
dilectione perseverantibus, qui- 
busdam quidem ab initio, quibus- 
dam autem ex poenitentia, vitam 
donans, incorruptelam loco mu- 
neris confert, et claritatem aeter- 
nam circumdat.' Nota ' qui- 
busdamS id est, iis qui mox a 
Baptismo moriuntur, vel qui pro 
Christo vitam ponunt ; vel deni- 
que perfectis statim donari vitam 
et claritatem asternam ; aliis non 
nisi post poenitentiam, id est, sa- 
tisfactionem in futuro saeculo ac- 
tam." 



Latin Translation. 
Et de ccelis in gloria Patris 
adventum ejus ad recapitulanda 
universa etresuscitandam omnem 
carnemhumani generis, ut Christo 
Jesu Domino nostro et Deo, et 
Salvatori, etRegi, secundum pla- 
citum Patris invisibilis, ' omne 
genu curvet ccelestium, et terres- 
trium, et infernorum, et omnis 
lingua confiteatur ei,' et judicium 
justum in omnibus faciat ; spiri- 
talia quidem nequitiae, et angelos 
transgressos, atque apostatas fac- 
tos, et impios et injustos et in- 
iquos, et blasphemos homines in 
aeternum ignem mittat ; — Justis 
autem et aequis et praecepta ejus 
servantibus et in dilectione ejus 
perseverantibus, quibusdam qui- 
dem ab initio, quibusdam autem 
ex poenitentia, vitam donans, in- 
corruptelam loco muneris con- 
ferat, et claritatem seternam 
ciRcuMDET. — Irenaei liber i. 
cap. x. p. 48. Interpretatio Ve- 
tus. 



120 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART L 

here condemning Bellarmin's untenable criticism : what 
I lament is the negligence or the disingenuousness with 
which he misquotes the words of Irenseus, and makes 
him say what he never did say. To extract from an 
author's words, correctly reported, a meaning which he 
did not intend to convey, however reprehensible and 
unworthy a follower of truth, is one act of injustice : to 
report him, whether wilfully or carelessly, as using 
words which he never did use, is far worse. 

Another expression of Irenseus l is appealed to by 
Bellarmin, and continues to be cited at the present day 
in defence of the invocation of saints; the precise 
bearing of which upon the subject I confess myself un- 
able to see, whilst I am very far from understanding the 
passage from which it is an extract. Bellarmin cites 
the passage not to show that the saints in glory pray 
for us, — that argument he had dismissed before, — but 
to prove that they are to be invoked by us. The insu- 
lated passage as quoted by him is this : " And as she 
(Eve) was induced to fly from God, so she (Mary) was 
persuaded to obey God, that of the Virgin Eve the 
Virgin Mary might become the advocate." After the 
quotation he says, "What can be clearer?" 

In whatever sense we may suppose Irenseus to have 
employed the word here translated "advocata," it is 
difficult to see how the circumstance of Mary becoming 
the advocate of Eve, who lived so many generations 
before her, can bear upon the question, Is it lawful 
and right for us, now dwelling on the earth, to invoke 
those saints whom we believe to be in heaven ? I will 
not dwell on the argument urged very cogently by some 
critics on this passage, that the word " advocata," found 

1 Benedict, lib. v. cap. xix. p. 316. 



CHAP. IV.] IREN^CJS. 121 

in the Latin version of Ireneeus, is the translation of 
the original word, now lost ', which, by the early 
writers, was used for "comforter and consoler," or 
" restorer ;" because, as I have above intimated, what- 
ever may have been the word employed by Irenseus, the 
passage proves nothing as to the lawfulness of our pray- 
ing to the saints. If the angels at God's bidding 
minister unto the heirs of salvation ; or further, if they 
plead our cause with God, that would be no reason w T hy 
we should invoke them and pray to them. This dis- 
tinction between what they may do for us, and what we 
ought to do with regard to them, is an essential dis- 
tinction, and must not be lost sight of. We shall 
have occasion hereafter to refer to it repeatedly, espe- 
cially in the instances of Origen and Cyprian. I will 
now do no more than copy in a note the entire passage 
from which the sentence now under consideration has 
been extracted, that the reader may judge whether on 
such a passage, the original of which, in whatever words 
Irenaeus may have expressed himself, is utterly lost, 
any reliance can satisfactorily be placed 2 . 



1 TrcipaxXrjTOQ — paraclete. 

2 Manifeste itaque in sua propria venientem Dominum et sua pro- 
pria eum bajulantem conditione quae bajulatur ab ipso, et recapitu- 
lationem ejus quae in ligno fuit inobedientise per earn quae in ligno 
est obedientiam facientem, et seductionem illam solutam qua seducta 
est male ilia, quae jam viro destinata erat virgo Eva, per veritatem 
evangelizata est bene ab angelo jam sub viro virgo Maria. Quem- 
admodum enim ilia per angeli sermonem seducta est ut effugeret 
Deum praevaricata verbum ejus, ita et haec per angelicum sermonem 
evangelizata est ut portaret Deum obediens ejus verbo. Et si ea 
inobedierat Deo, sed haec suasa est obedire Deo, uti virginis Evae 
virgo Maria fieret advocata. Et quemadmodum astrictum est morti 
genus humanum per virginem, salvatur per virginem, asqua lance 
disposita virginalis inobedientia per virginalem obedientiam. Adhuc 



122 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

But passages occur in Irenseus, which seem to leave 
no doubt, that neither in faith nor in practice would he 
countenance in the very lowest degree the adoration of 
saints and angels, or any invocation of them. 

For example, in one part of his works we read, 
" Nor does it 1 [the Church] do any thing by invoca- 
tions of angels, nor by incantations, nor other depraved 
and curious means, but with cleanliness, purity, and 
openness, directing prayers to the Lord who made all 
things, and calling upon the name of Jesus Christ our 
Lord, it exercises its powers for the benefit, and not 
for the seducing, of mankind." It has been said that, 
by angelic invocations, Irenseus means the addresses 
to evil angels and genii, such as the heathen super- 
stitiously made. Be it so ; though that is a mere as- 
sumption, not warranted by the passage or its context. 
But, surely, had Irenseus known that Christians prayed 
to angels, as well as to their Maker and their Saviour, 
he would not have used such an unguarded expression ; 
he would have cautioned his readers against so serious, 
but so natural, a misapprehension of his meaning. 

With one more reference, we must bring our inquiry 
into the testimony of Irenseus to a close. The passage 
occurs in the fifth book, chapter 31 2 . The principal 
and most important, though not the longest, part of 

enim protoplasti peccatum per correptionem primogeniti emenda- 
tionem accipiens, et serpentis prudentia devicta in columbae simpli- 
citate, vinculis autem illis resolutis, per quae alligati eramus morti. 
St. Augustin (Paris, 1690. vol. x. p. 500.) refers to the latter part 
of this passage, as implying the doctrine of original sin ; but since 
his quotation does not embrace any portion of the clause at present 
under our consideration, no additional light from him is thrown on 
the meaning of Irenaeus. 

1 Benedictine Ed. lib. ii. c. 32. § 5. p. 166. 

2 Benedict, lib. v. c. 32. § 2. p. 331. 



CHAP. IV.] IREN^US. 123 

the passage is happily still found in the original Greek, 
preserved in the "Parallels" of Damascenus. In its 
plain, natural, and unforced sense, this passage is so 
decidedly conclusive on the question at issue, that 
various attempts have been made to explain away its 
meaning, so as not to represent Irenseus as believing 
that the souls of departed saints, between their death 
and the day of judgment, exist otherwise than in bliss 
and glory in heaven. But those attempts have been 
altogether unsuccessful. I believe the view here pre- 
sented to us by the plain and obvious sense of the 
words of Irenseus, is the view at present acquiesced in 
by a large proportion of our fellow-believers. The 
Anglican Church has made no article of faith what- 
ever on the subject. The clause within brackets is 
found both in the Latin and the Greek. 

"Since the Lord l in the midst of the shadow of 
death went where the souls of the dead were, and then 
afterwards rose bodily, and after his resurrection was 
taken up, it is evident that of his disciples also, for 
whom the Lord wrought these things, [the souls go 
into the unseen 2 place assigned to them by God, and 
there remain till the resurrection, waiting for the re- 
surrection ; afterwards receiving again their bodies and 
rising perfectly 3 , that is, bodily, even as the Lord also 
rose again, so will they come into the presence of God.] 



1 Bellarmin, rather than allow the testimony of Irenseus to weigh 
at all against the doctrine which he is defending, seems determined 
to combat and challenge that father himself. " Non ausus est 
dicere," " He has not dared to say, that the souls go to the regions 
below," &c. 

2 There is no word in the Greek copy corresponding with the 
Latin " invisibilem." 

3 6\oK\{]pioc, perfecte. 



124 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

For no disciple is above his master ; but every one that 
is perfect shall be as his master. As, therefore, our 
Master did not immediately flee away and depart, but 
waited for the time of his resurrection appointed by his 
Father (which is evident, even by the case of Jonah) ; 
after the third day, rising again, he was taken up ; so 
we too must wait for the time of our resurrection 
appointed by God, and fore-announced by the prophets ; 
and thus rising again, be taken up, as many as the 
Lord shall have deemed worthy of this." 



SECTION III. 

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA 1 — ABOUT THE YEAR 180. 

Contemporary with Irenseus, and probably less than 
twenty years his junior, was Clement, the celebrated 
Christian philosopher of Alexandria. I am not aware 
that any Roman Catholic writer has appealed to 
the testimony of Clement in favour of the invocation 
of saints, nor have I found a single passage which 
the defenders of that practice would be likely to 
quote ; and yet there are many passages which no 
one, anxious to trace the Catholic faith, would willingly 
neglect. The tendency of Clement's mind to blend 
with the simplicity of the Gospel of Christ the philo- 
sophy in which he so fully abounded, renders him far 
less valuable as a Christian teacher; but his evidence 
as to the matter of fact, is even rendered more cogent 
and pointed by this tendency of his mind. I would 

1 Ed. Oxon. 1715. 



CHAP. IV.] CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. 1 25 

willingly have transferred to these pages whole pas- 
sages of Clement, but the very nature of my address 
forbids it. Some sentences bearing on the subject 
immediately before us, we must not omit. 

Clement has left on record many of his meditations 
upon the efficacy, the duty, and the blessed com- 
fort of prayer. When he speaks of God, and of the 
Christian in prayer, (for prayer he defines to be " com- 
munion or intercourse with God,") his language be- 
comes often exquisitely beautiful, and sometimes sub- 
lime. It is impossible by a few detached passages to 
convey an adequate estimate of the original ; and yet 
a few sentences may show that Clement is a man whose 
testimony should not be slighted. 

"Therefore ', keeping the whole of our life as a feast 
every where, and on every part persuaded that God is 
present, we praise him as we till our lands ; we sing 
hymns as we are sailing. The Christian is persuaded 
that God hears every thing; not the voice only, but 
the thoughts. . . . Suppose any one should say, that 
the voice does not reach God, revolving as it does in 
the air below ; yet the thoughts of the saints cut not 
only through the air, but the whole world. And the 
divine power like the light is beforehand in seeing 

through the soul He" (the Christian whom he 

speaks of throughout as the man of divine knowledge) 
" prays for things essentially good. 

" Wherefore it best becomes those to pray who have 
an adequate knowledge of God, and possess virtue in 
accordance with Him — who know what are real goods, 
and what we should petition for, and when, and how in 
each case. But it is the extreme of ignorance to ask 

1 Stromata, lib. vii. § 7. p. 851, &c. 



126 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

from those who are not gods as though they were 
gods. . . . Whence since there is one only good God, 
both we ourselves and the angels supplicate from Him 
alone, that some good things might be given to us, and 
others might remain with us 1 . In this way he (the 
Christian) is always in a state of purity fit for prayer. 
He prays with angels, as being himself equal with 
angels ; and as one who is never beyond the holy pro- 
tecting guard. And if he pray alone he has the whole 
choir of angels with him." 

Clement has alluded 2 to instances alleged by the 
Greeks of the effects of prayer, and he adds, " Our 
whole Scripture is full of instances of God hearing and 
granting every request according to the prayers of the 
just." 

Having in the same section referred to the opinion 
of some Greeks as to the power of demons over the 
affairs of mortals, he adds, " But they think 3 it matters 
nothing whether we speak of these as gods or as angels, 
calling the spirits of such ' demons,' and teaching that 
they should be worshipped by men, as having, by divine 
providence, on account of the purity of their lives, re- 
ceived authority to be conversant about earthly places, 
in order that they may minister to mortals." 

Is it possible to suppose that this teacher in Christ's 
school had any idea of a Christian praying to saints 
or angels ? In the last passage, the language in which 
he quotes the errors of heathen superstition to refute 
them, so nearly approaches the language of the Church 
of Rome when speaking of the powers of saints and 
angels to assist the suppliant, that if Clement had enter- 

1 Section xii. p. 879. 2 Lib. vi. § iii. p. 753. 

3 Lib. vi. § iii. p. 755. 



CHAP. IV.] TERTULLIAN. 127 

tamed any thought whatever of a Christian praying for 
aid and intercession to saint or angel, he must have 
mentioned it, especially after the previous passage on 
the absurdity and gross ignorance of praying for any 
good at the hands of any other than the one true God. 
In common with his contemporaries, Clement con- 
sidered the angels to be, as we mortals are, in a state 
requiring all the protection and help to be obtained by 
prayer ; he believed that the angels pray with us, and 
carry our prayers to God : but the thought of address- 
ing them by invocation does not appear to have oc- 
curred to his mind. At the close of his Psedagogus he 
has left on record a form of prayer to God alone ^ery 
peculiar and interesting. He closes it by an ascription of 
glory to the blessed Trinity. But there is no allusion 
to saint, or angel, or virgin mother. 



SECTION IV. 



Tertullian, of Carthage, was a contemporary of Cle- 
ment of Alexandria, and so nearly of the same age, 
that doubts have existed, which of the two should take 
priority in point of time. There is a very wide dif- 
ference in the character and tone of their works, as 
there was in the frame and constitution of their minds. 
The lenient and liberal views of the erudite and accom- 
plished master of the school of Alexandria, stand out 
in prominent and broad contrast with the harsh and 
austere doctrines of Tertullian. 

Tertullian fell into errors of a very serious kind by 
joining himself to the heretic Montanus ; still on his 

1 Ed. Paris, 1675. 



128 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

mind is discoverable the working of that spirit which 
animated the early converts of Christianity; and his 
whole soul seems to have been filled with a desire to 
promote the practical influence of the Gospel. 

Jerome \ the oracle on such subjects, from whom 
the Roman Catholic Church is unwilling to allow any 
appeal, expressly tells us that Cyprian 2 , who called 
Tertullian the Master, never passed a single day with- 
out studying his works ; and that after Tertullian had 
remained a presbyter of the Church to middle age, he 
was driven, by the envy and revilings of the members 
of the Roman Church, to fall from its unity, and 
espouse Montanism. Bellarmin calls him a heretic, 
and says he is the first heretic who denied that the 
saints went at once and forthwith to glory. 

A decided line of distinction is drawn by Roman 
Catholic writers between the works of Tertullian writ- 
ten before he espoused the errors of Montanus, and 
his works written after that unhappy step. The former 
they hold in great estimation, the latter are by many 
considered of far less authority. I do not see how 
such a distinction ought to affect his testimony on the 
historical point immediately before us. If indeed he 
had held the doctrine of the invocation of saints whilst 
he continued in the full communion of the Church, and 
rejected it afterwards, no honest and sensible writer 
would quote his later opinions against the practice. But 
we are only seeking in his works for evidence of the 

1 Hieron. edit. 1684. torn. i. p. 183. 

2 The words of Jerome, who refers to the circumstance more than 
once, are very striking: "I saw one Paulus, who said that he had 
seen the secretary (notarium) of Cyprian at Rome, who used to tell 
him that Cyprian never passed a single day without reading Ter- 
tullian ; and that he often said to him, ' Give me the Master,' mean- 
ing Tertullian." — Hieron. vol. iv. part ii. p. 115. 



CHAP. IV.] TERTULLIAN. 129 

matter of fact, — Is there any proof in the works of 
Tertullian that the invocation of saints formed a part of 
the doctrine and practice of the Catholic Church in 
his time ] ? His works will be found in the note, 
arranged under those two heads, as nearly as I can 
ascertain the preponderating sentiments of critics 2 . 

I will detain you only by a very few quotations from 
this father. 

In his Apology, sect. 30, we read this very re- 
markable passage, "We invoke the eternal God, the 
true God, the living God, for the safety of the em- 

1 The reader, who may be induced to consult the work of the 
present Bishop of Lincoln, entitled, " The Ecclesiastical History of 
the second and third Centuries, illustrated from the writings of 
Tertullian," will there find, in the examination and application of 
Tertullian's remains, the union of sound judgment, diligence in 
research, clearness of perception, acuteness in discovery, and great 
erudition mingled with charity. 

2 Works of Tertullian before he became a Montanist : — 

Adversus Judaeos. 

The Tract ad Martyres. 

The two Books ad Nationes. 

The Apology, and the Tract de Praescriptione Hsereticorum. 

The Tract de Testimonio Animse. 

The Tracts de Patientia, de Oratione, de Baptismo, de Pceni- 
tentia. 

The two books ad Uxorem. 

Works written after he espoused Montanism : — 

The Tracts de Spectaculis and de Idololatria, though others say 
these should be ranked among the first class. 

The Tracts de Corona, and de Fuga in persecutione, Scorpiace, 
and ad Scapulam. 

The Tracts de Exhortatione Castitatis, de Monogamia, de Pudi- 
citia, de Jejuniis, de Virginibus Velandis, de Pallio, the five books 
against Marcion, the Tracts adversus Valentinianos, de Carne 
Christi, de Resurrectione Carnis, adversus Hermogenem, de Anima, 
adversus Praxeam, de Cultu Fceminarum. 

K 



130 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

peror Thither (heavenward) looking up, with 

hands extended, because they are innocent ; with our 
head bare, because we are not ashamed ; in fine, with- 
out a prompter, because it is from the heart; we 
Christians pray for all rulers a long life, a secure go- 
vernment, a safe home, brave armies, a faithful senate, a 
good people, a quiet world. . . . For these things I can- 
not ask in prayer from any other except Him from whom 
I know that I shall obtain ; because both He is the one 
who alone grants, and I am the one whom it behoveth 
to obtain by prayer; — his servant, who looks to him 
alone, who for the sake of his religion am put to death, 
who offer to him a rich and a greater victim, which He 
has commanded ; prayer from a chaste frame, from a 

harmless soul, from a holy spirit So, let hoofs 

dig into us, thus stretched forward to God, let crosses 
suspend us, let fires embrace us, let swords sever our 
necks from the body, let beasts rush upon us, — the 
very frame of mind of a praying Christian is prepared 
for every torment. This do, ye good presidents ; tear 
ye away the soul that is praying for the emperor V 

In the opening of his reflections on the Lord's 
Prayer, he says, — ■ 

" Let us consider therefore, beloved, in the first 
place, the heavenly wisdom in the precept of praying 
in secret, by which he required, in a man, faith to 
believe that both the sight and the hearing of the 
Omnipotent God is present under our roofs and in our 
secret places; and desired the lowliness of faith, that 
to Him alone, whom he believed to hear and to see 
every where, he would offer his worship 2 ." 

The only other reference which I will make, is to 
1 Page 27. 2 Page 129. 



CHAP. IV.] METHODIUS. 131 

the solemn declaration of Tertullian's Creed ; the last 
clause of which, though in perfect accordance with the 
sentiments of his contemporaries, seems to have been 
regarded with hostile eyes by modern writers of the 
Church of Rome, because it decidedly bids us look to 
the day of judgment for the saints being taken to the 
enjoyment of heaven; and consequently implies that 
they cannot be properly invoked now. 

" To profess now what we defend : By the rule of 
our faith we believe that God is altogether one, and 
no other than the Creator of the world, who pro- 
duced all things out of nothing by his Word first of 
all sent down. That that Word, called his Son, was 
variously seen by the patriarchs in the name of God ; 
was always heard in the prophets ; at length, borne by 
the spirit and power of God the Father into the Virgin 
Mary, was made flesh in her womb, was born of her, 
and was Jesus Christ. Afterwards He preached a new 
law and a new promise of the kingdom of heaven; 
wrought miracles, was crucified, rose again the third 
day, and, being taken up into heaven, sat on the right 
hand of the Father; and He sent in his own stead 
the power of the Holy Ghost, to guide believers ; that 
He shall come with glory to take the saints to the 
enjoyment of eternal life and the heavenly promises, 
and to condemn the impious to eternal fire, making a 
reviving of both classes with the restoration of the 
body '." 



Some notice must here be taken of Methodius, a 
pious Christian, of the third century. A work 2 

1 De Prsescriptione Haereti'corum, § 13. p. 206. 

2 Methodius, Gl. Combes. Paris, 1644. 

K2 



132 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

formerly attributed to him has been quoted in proof of 
the early invocation of saints ; but the work, among 
many others, has been long ago allowed by the best 
Roman Catholic critics to be the production of a later 
age \ Many homilies, purporting to have been deli- 
vered on the festival of our Lord's presentation in the 
temple, at so early a period, must be received as the 
works of a later age, because that feast began to be 
observed in the Church so late as the fifteenth year of 
Justinian, in the sixth century. Evidently, moreover, 
the theological language of the homily is of a period 
long subsequent to the date assigned to Methodius. In 
speaking of our blessed Saviour, for example, he em- 
ploys expressions to guard against the Arian heresy, 
and makes extracts apparently from the Nicene creed, 
" God of himself, and not by grace," " Very God of 
very God, very light of very light, who for us men and 
our salvation, &c." The general opinion indeed seems 
to be that this, and many other writings formerly 
ascribed to the first Methodius, were written by persons 
of a subsequent age, who either were of the same name 
or assumed his. Even were the work genuine, it would 
afford just as strong a demonstration that Methodius 
believed that the city of Jerusalem could hear his salu- 
tation, as that the saints could hear his prayer ; for he 
addresses the same "Hail" to Mary, Symeon, and the 
Holy City alike, calling it the " earthly heaven 2 ." 

1 FabriciuSj vol. vii. p. 268, and vol. x. p. 241. 

2 ^aipoig f/ 7ro\if, 6 kwijEiOQ ovpavug. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 133 



SECTION V. 



THE EVIDENCE OF ORIGEN l . 



Jerome informs us that Tertullian, whose remains 
we have last examined, lived to a very advanced age. 
Long, therefore, before his death flourished Origen, 
one of the most celebrated lights of the primitive 
Church. He was educated a Christian. Indeed his 
father is said to have suffered martyrdom about the 
year 202. Origen was a pupil of Clement of Alex- 
andria. His virtues and his labours have called forth 
the admiration of all ages ; and though he cannot be 
implicitly followed as a teacher, what still remains of 
his works will be delivered down as a rich treasure to 
succeeding times. He was a most voluminous writer ; 
and Jerome 2 asked the members of his church, " Who 
is there among us that can read as many books as 
Origen has composed?" A large proportion of his 
works are lost; and of those which remain, few are 
preserved in the original Greek. We are often obliged 
to study Origen through the medium of a translation, 
the accuracy of which we have no means of verify- 
ing. A difficult and delicate duty also devolves upon 
the theological student to determine which of the 
works attributed to Origen are genuine and which are 
spurious ; and what parts, moreover, of the works re- 
ceived on the whole as genuine came from his pen. Of 

1 Benedictine edition, by De la Rue, Paris, 1733. De la Rue 
had completed only part of his preface to the third volume, when he 
was stricken for death. He died in 1739. This editor seems to 
have been as pious and benevolent, as he was learned and indus- 
trious. 

2 Vol. iv. epist. xli. p. 346. 



134 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

the spurious works, some are so palpably written in a 
much later age, and by authors of different religious 
views, that no one, after weighing the evidence, can be 
at a loss what decision to make concerning them ; in 
the case of others, claims and objections may appear to 
be more evenly balanced. I trust on the one hand to 
refer to no works for Origens testimony which are not 
confessedly his, nor on the other to exclude any passage 
which is not decidedly spurious ; whilst in one particular 
case more immediately connected with our subject, I am 
induced to enter further in detail into a critical exami- 
nation of the genuineness and value of a passage than the 
character of this work generally requires. The great 
importance attached to the testimony of that passage 
by some defenders of the worship paid to angels, may 
be admitted to justify the fulness of the criticism. Lest, 
however, its insertion in the body of the work might 
seem inconveniently to interfere with the reader's pro- 
gress in our argument, I have thought it best to include 
it in a supplementary section at the close of our inquiry 
into the evidence of Origen. 

Coccius *, in his elaborate work, quotes the two fol- 
lowing passages as Origen' s, without expressing any 
hesitation or doubt respecting their genuineness, in 
which he is followed by writers of the present day 2 . The 
passages are alleged in proof that Origen held and put 
in practice the doctrine of the invocation of saints ; and 
they form the first quotations made by Coccius under the 
section headed by this title : " That the saints are to be 
invoked, proved by the testimony of the Greek Fathers." 

The first passage is couched in these words : " I will 

1 Thesaurus Catholicus. Colonise, 1601. Jodocus Coccius, a native 
of Bielfikl, in Germany, was a canon of St. Juliers. 

2 See Appendix. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 135 

begin to throw myself upon my knees, and pray to all 
the saints to come to my aid ; for I do not dare, in con- 
sequence of my excess of wickedness, to call upon God. 
O Saints of God, you I pray with weeping full of grief, 
that ye would propitiate his mercies for me miserable. 
Alas me ! Father Abraham, pray for me, that I be not 
driven from thy bosom, which I greatly long for, and 
yet not worthily, because of the greatness of my sius." 

Coccius cites this passage as from " Origen in La- 
ment," and it has been recently appealed to under the 
title of " Origen on the Lamentations." Here, however, 
is a very great mistake. Origen's work on the Lamen- 
tations, called also " Selecta in Threnos," and inserted 
in the Benedictine edition \ is entirely a different 
production from the work which contains the above 
extract. This apocryphal work, on the other hand, 
does not profess to be the comment of Origen on the 
Lamentations, but the Lament or Wailing of Origen 
himself; or, as it used to be called, the Penitence of 
Origen 2 . That this work has no pretensions whatever 
to be regarded as Origen's, has been long placed beyond 
doubt. Even in the edition of 1545 3 , this treatise is 
prefaced by Erasmus in these words, " This Lamenta- 
tion was neither written by Origen nor translated by 
Jerome, but is the fiction of some unlearned man, who 
attempted, under colour of this, to throw disgrace upon 
Origen." In the Benedictine edition 4 no trace of this 
work is to be found. They do not admit it among the 
doubtful, or even the spurious works ; they do not so 

1 Vol. iii. p. 321. 

2 In the Paris edition of 1519 it is called " Planctus, seu La- 
mentum Origenis." Pope Gelasius refers to it as "Pcenitentia Ori- 
genis." 

* Basil, 1545. vol. i. p. 198. ' Paris, 1733. 



136 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

much as give room for it in the appendix ; on the con- 
trary, they drop it altogether as utterly unworthy of 
being any longer preserved. Instead, however, of 
admitting the work itself, these editors have supplied 
abundant reason for its exclusion, by inserting the senti- 
ments of Huetius *, or Huet, the very learned bishop 
of Avranches. He tells us, that formerly to Origen's 
work on Principles used to be appended a treatise 
called, the Lament of Origen, the Latin translation of 
which Guido referred to Jerome. After quoting the 
passage of Erasmus (as above cited from the edi- 
tion of 1545) in proof of its having been "neither 
written by Origen nor translated by Jerome, but the 
fabrication of some unlearned man, who attempted, 
under colour of this, to throw disgrace on Origen, just 
as they forged a letter in Jerome's name, lamenting 
that he had ever thought with Origen," Huet proceeds 
thus : " And Gelasius in the Roman Council writes, 
' The book which is called The Repentance of Origen, 
apocryphal.' It is wonderful, therefore, that without 
any mark of its false character, it should be sometimes 
cited by some theologians in evidence. Here we may 
smile at the supineness of a certain heterodox man of 
the present age, who thought the ' Lament,' ascribed 
to Origen, to be something different from the Book of 
Repentance." 

The Decree here referred to of Pope Gelasius 2 , made 
in the Roman Council, a.d. 494, by that pontiff, in 
conjunction with seventy bishops, contains these strong 
expressions, before enumerating some few of the books 
then condemned : " Other works written by heretics 
and schismatics, the Catholic and Apostolic Church by 

1 Vol. iv. partii. p. 326. 2 Cone. Labb. vol. iv. p. 1265. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 137 

no means receives ; of them we think it right to sub- 
join a few which have occurred to our memory, and 
are to be avoided by Catholics." Then follows a list 
of prohibited works, among which we read, " the book 
called The Repentance of Origen, apocryphal," the very 
book which Huet identifies with the " Lament of Ori- 
gen," still cited as evidence even in the present day ! . 

The second passage cited by Coccius, and also by 
writers of the present time, as Origen's, without any 
allusion to its spurious and apocryphal character, is 
from the second book of the work called Origen on 
Job. The words cited run thus : " O blessed Job, 
who art living for ever with God, and remainest con- 
queror in the sight of the Lord the King, pray for us 
wretched, that the mercy of the terrible God may pro- 
tect us in all our afflictions, and deliver us from all 
oppressions of the wicked one ; and number us with the 
just, and enrol us among those who are saved, and 
make us rest with them in his kingdom, where for 
ever with the saints we may magnify him." 

This work, like the former, has no claim whatever 
to be regarded as Origen's. It has long been dis- 
carded by the learned. Indeed so far back as 1545 2 , 
Erasmus, in his Censura, proved that it was written 
long after the time of Origen by an Arian. By the 
Benedictine editors 3 it is transferred to an appendix 
as the Commentary of an anonymous writer on Job ; 
and they thus express their judgment as to its being 
a forgery : " The Commentary of an anonymous writer 
on Job, in previous editions, is ascribed to Origen ; 



1 See Appendix A. 

2 Basil, 1545. vol. i. p. 408 ; and " Censura.' 

3 Vol. ii. p. 894. 



138 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

but that it is not his \ Huet proves by unconquerable 
arguments. This translation is assigned to Hilary, the 
bishop ; but although it is clear from various proofs of 
Jerome, that St. Hilary translated the tracts or homilies 
of Origen on Job, yet there is no reason why that man 
who wrote with the highest praise against the Arians, 
should be considered as the translator of this work, 
which is infected with the corruption of Arianism, and 
which is not Origen's." Erasmus calls the prologue to 
this treatise on Job " the production of a silly talkative 
man, neither learned nor modest." 

It is impossible not to feel, with regard to these two 
works, the sentiments which, as we have already seen, 
the Bishop of Avranches has so strongly expressed on 
one. " It is wonderful, that they should be sometimes 
cited in evidence by some theologians, without any 
mark of their being forgeries." 

Proceeding with our examination of the sentiments 
of Origen, I would here premise, that not the smallest 
doubt can be entertained that Origen believed the 
angels to be ministering spirits, real, active, zealous 
workmen and fellow-labourers with us in the moment- 
ous and awful business of our eternal salvation. He 
represents the angels as members of the same family 
with ourselves, as worshippers of the same God, as ser- 
vants of the same master, as children of the same 
father, as disciples of the same heavenly teacher, as 
learners of one and the same heavenly doctrine. He 
contemplates them as members of our Christian con- 
gregations, as joining with us in prayer to our heavenly 
Benefactor, as taking pleasure when they hear in our 

1 The arguments of Huetius are found in the Benedictine edition 
of Origen, vol. iv. p. 324. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 139 

assemblies what is agreeable to the will of God, and as 
being present too not only generally in the Christian 
Church, but also with individual members of it \ But 
does Origen, therefore, countenance any invocation of 
them ? Let us appeal to himself. 

Celsus accused the Christians of being atheists, god- 
less, men without God, because they would not worship 
those gods many and lords many, and those secondary, 
subordinate, auxiliary, and ministering divinities with 
which the heathen mythology abounded: Origen 
answers, we are not godless, we are not without an 
object of our prayer ; we pray to God Almighty alone 
through the mediation only of his Son. 

" We must pray to God alone 2 , who is over all 
things ; and we must pray also to the only-begotten 
and first-born of every creature, the Word of God ; 
and we must implore him as our High Priest to carry 
our prayer, first coming to him, to his God and our 

1 One or two references will supply abundant proof of this : " I do 
not doubt that in our congregation angels are present, not only in 
general to the whole Church, but also individually with those of 
whom it is said, 'Their angels do always behold the lace of my Father 
who is in heaven.' A twofold Church is here : one of men, the 
other of angels. If we say any thing agreeably to reason and the 
mind of Scripture, the angels rejoice to pray with us." And a little 
above, " Our Saviour, therefore, as well as the Holy Spirit, who 
spoke by the prophets, instructs not only men, but angels and invi- 
sible powers." — Horn, xxiii. in Luc. vol. iii. p. 961. 

" Whoever, therefore, confessing his sins, repents, or confesses 
Christ before men in persecutions, is applauded by his brethren. 
For there is joy and gladness to the angels in heaven over one sinner 
that repenteth. By them, therefore, as by brethren (for both men 
and angels are sons of the same Creator and Father) they are 
praised." — In Genes. Horn. xvii. p. 110. 

2 Movw yap Trpoaevtiriov ruj eirl iraai Qem, &c. — Cont. Cels. § 8. 
c. xxvi. vol. i. p. 761. 



140 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

God, to his Father and the Father of those who live 
agreeably to the word of God." 

But Celsus, in this well representing the weakness 
and failings of human nature, still urged on the Chris- 
tian the necessity, or at all events the expediency, of 
conciliating those intermediate beings who executed 
the will of the Supreme Being, and might haply have 
much left at their own will and discretion to give or to 
withhold ; and therefore the desirableness of securing 
their good offices by prayer. To this Origen answers : 

" The one God ' — the God who is over all, is to be 
propitiated by us, and to be appeased by prayer; the 
God who is rendered favourable by piety and all virtue. 
But if he (Celsus) is desirous, after the supreme God, 
to propitiate some others also, let him bear in mind, 
that just as a body in motion is accompanied by the 
motion of its shadow, so also by rendering the supreme 
God favourable, it follows that the person has all his 
(God's) friends, angels, souls, spirits, favourable also ; 
for they sympathize with those who are worthy of God's 
favour; and not only do they become kindly affected 
towards the worthy, but they also join in their work 
with those who desire to worship the supreme God ; 
and they propitiate him, and they pray with us, and 
supplicate with us ; so that we boldly say, that together 
with men who on principle prefer the better part, and 
pray to God, ten thousands of holy powers join in prayer 

UNASKED 2 ," [UNBIDDEN, UNCALLED upon.] 

What an opportunity was here for Origen to have 
stated, that though ^Christians do not call upon demons 
and the subordinate divinities of heathenism to aid 

1 "Em ovv tov em ttolgl Qebv ijjjuv e^evfieviarioi'. — Cont. Cels. 
lib. viii. § 64. vol. i. p. 789. 

2 ClKXrjTOl. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 141 

them, yet that they do call upon the ministering spirits, 
the true holy angels, messengers and servants of the 
most High God ! But whilst speaking of them, and 
magnifying the blessings derived to man through their 
ministry, so far from encouraging us to ask them for 
their good offices, his testimony on the contrary is not 
merely negative ; he positively asserts that when they 
assist mankind, it is without any request or prayer from 
man. Could this come from one who invoked angels ? 

Another passage, although it adds little to the evi- 
dence of the above extract, I am unwilling to pass by, 
because it beautifully illustrates by the doctrine and 
practice of Origen the prayer, the only one adopted 
by the Anglican Church, offered by the Church to 
God for the succour and defence of the holy angels. 
Speaking of the unsatisfactory slippery road which 
they tread, who either depend upon the agency of 
demons for good, or are distressed by the fear of evil 
from them, Origen adds, " How far better ' were it to 
commit oneself to God who is over all, through Him 
who instructed us in this doctrine, Jesus Christ, and of 
him to ask for every aid from the holy angels and the just, 
that they may rescue us from the earthly demons." 

In the following passage Origen answers the ques- 
tion of Celsus 2 : "If you Christians admit the existence 
of angels, tell us what you consider their nature to be ?" 

" Come," replies Origen, " let us consider these points. 
Now we confessedly say, that the angels are ministering 
spirits, and sent to minister on account of those who 
are to be heirs of salvation ; that they ascend, bearing 
with them the supplications of men into the most pure 



1 Cont. Cels. lib. viii. § 60. vol. i. p. 786. 7ro<rw (deXtiov, &c. 

2 Cont. Cels. lib. v. § 4. p. 579. 



142 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

heavenly places of the world ; and that they again de- 
scend from thence, bearing to each in proportion to 
what is appointed by God for them to minister to the 
well-doers. And learning that these are, from their 
work, called angels ' (messengers, ministers sent to exe- 
cute some commission), we find them, because they are 
divine, sometimes called even gods in the Holy Scrip- 
tures ; but not so, as for any injunction to be given to 
us to worship and adore, instead of God, those who 
minister, and bring to us the things of God. For 
every request and prayer, and supplication and thanks- 
giving, must be sent up to Him who is God above all, 
through the High Priest, who is above all angels, even 
the living Word of God. And we also make our re- 
quests to the Word, and supplicate Him, and moreover 
offer our prayer to Him ; if we can understand the 
difference between the right use and the abuse of 
prayer. For it is not reasonable for us to call upon 
angels, without receiving a knowledge concerning them 
which is above man. But supposing the knowledge 
concerning them, wonderful and unutterable as it is, 
had been received; that very knowledge describing 
their nature, and those to whom they are respectively 
assigned, would not give confidence in praying to any 
other than to Him who is sufficient for every thing, 
God who is above all, through our Saviour, the Son of 
God, who is the word, and wisdom, and the truth, and 
whatsoever else the writings of the prophets of God, 
and the Apostles of Jesus say concerning Him. But 
for the angels of God to be favourable to us, and to do 
all things for us, our disposition towards God is suffi- 
cient ; we copy them to the utmost of human strength, 



1 ayyeXoi, 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 143 

as they copy God. And our conception concerning his 
Son, the Word, according to what is come to us, is not 
opposed to the more clear conception of the holy angels 
concerning Him, but is daily approximating towards it 
in clearness and perspicuity." 

Again, he thus writes ] : " But Celsus wishes us to 
dedicate the first-fruits unto the demons ; but we to 
Him who said, Let the earth bring forth grass, &c. But 
to whom we give the first-fruits, to him we send up 
also our prayers ; having a great High Priest who is 
entered into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God ; and 
this confession we hold fast as long as we live, having 
God favourable unto us, and his only-begotten Son 
being manifested among us, Jesus Christ. But if we 
wish to have a multitude favourable unto us, we learn 
that thousand thousands stand by Him, and ten thou- 
sand thousands minister unto Him; who, regarding those 
as kinsfolks and friends who imitate their piety to God, 
work together for the salvation of them who call upon 
God and pray sincerely ; appearing also, and thinking 
that they ought to listen to them, and as if upon one 
watchword to go forth for the benefit and salvation of 
those who pray to God, to whom they also pray." 

After these multiplied declarations of Origen, not 
only confessing that Christians did not pray to the 
angels, but vindicating them from the charge of impiety 
brought against them by their enemies for their neglect 
of the worship of angels, is it possible to regard him as 
a witness in favour of prayer to angels ? 

But it has been said that Origen in another 2 passage 

1 Cont. Cels. lib. viii. § 34. (Benedict, p. 766.) 

2 Cont. Cels. lib. viii. § 13. p. 751-. tovtovq eXeye hTp depcnrtv- 
eadai, &C. 



144 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

plainly implies, that he would not be unwilling to dis- 
cuss the question of some worship being due to angels 
and archangels, provided the idea of that worship, and 
the acts of the worshippers, were first cleared of all 
misapprehension. And I would not that any Catholic, 
whether in communion with the Church of England or of 
Rome, should make any other answer than Origen here 
gave to Celsus. Let me speak freely on this point. I 
should not respect the memory of Origen as I do, had 
he taught differently. The word which he uses is the 
Greek word " therapeusis V' precisely the same word 
with that which the learned in medicine now use to 
describe the means of healing diseases. It is a word of 
very wide import. It signifies the care which a physi- 
cian takes of his patient ; the service paid to a master ; 
the attention given to a superior; the affectionate 
attendance of a friend ; the allegiance of a subject ; 
the worship of the Supreme Being. Origen says, Pro- 
vided Celsus will specify what kind of "therapeusis" 
he would wish to be paid to those angels and arch- 
angels whose existence we acknowledge, I am ready 
to enter upon the subject with him. This is all he 
says. And we of the Anglican Church are ready 
from our hearts to join him. Call it by what name 
we may, we are never backward in acknowledging 
ourselves bound to render it. We pay to the angels 
and archangels, and all the company of heaven, the 
homage of respect, and veneration, and love. They 
are indeed our fellow-servants ; they are, like ourselves, 
creatures of God's hand; but they are exalted far above 
us in nature and in office. By the grace of God, we 
would daily endeavour to become less distant from 



1 dspaTrevaic. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 145 

them in purity, in zeal, in obedience. Origen here speaks 
not one word of adoration, of invocation, of prayer. 
He speaks of a feeling and a behaviour, which the 
Greeks called ' therapeusis,' and which we best render 
by ' respect, veneration, and love.' Far from us be the 
thought of lowering the holy angels in the eyes of our 
fellow-creatures ; equally far from us be the thought of 
invoking them, of asking them even for their prayers. 
They are holy creatures and holy messengers : we will 
think and speak of them with reverence, and gratitude, 
and affection ; but they are creatures and messengers 
still, and when we think or speak of the object of prayer, 
we think and speak solely and exclusively of God. 

With regard to Origen's opinion, as to the invoca- 
tion of the souls of saints departed, a very few words 
will suffice. He clearly records his opinion that the 
faithful are still waiting for us, and that till we all 
rejoice together, their joy will not be full : he leaves 
among the mysteries not to be solved now the ques- 
tion whether the departed can benefit the human race 
at all ; and he has added reflections, full of edifying and 
solemn admonition, which would dissuade his fellow- 
believers from placing their confidence in any virtues, 
or intercessions, or merits of saints, and in any thing 
except the mere mercy of God, through Jesus Christ, and 
our own individual labour in the work of the Lord. 

In his seventh homily on Leviticus, in a passage 
partly quoted by Bellarmin, we read ', — " Not even the 
Apostles have yet received their joy, but even they are 
waiting, in order that I also may become a partaker of 

1 Vol. ii. p. 222. Nondum enim receperunt laetitiam suam, ne 
apostoli quidem, &c. But see Huetius on Origen, lib. ii. q. 11, 

No. 10. 

L 



146 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

their joy. For the saints departing hence do not im- 
mediately receive all the rewards of their deserts ; but 
they wait even for us, though we be delaying and 
dilatory 1 . For they have not perfect joy as long as 
they grieve for our errors, and mourn for our sins." 
Then, having quoted the Epistle to the Hebrews, he 
proceeds, — " You see, therefore, that Abraham is yet 
waiting to obtain those things that are perfect ; so is 
Isaac and Jacob ; and so all the prophets are waiting 
for us, that they might obtain eternal blessedness with 
us. Wherefore, even this mystery is kept, to the last 
day of delayed judgment." 

Modern Roman Catholic writers tell us, that we 
must consider Origen here as only referring to the 
reunion of the soul with the body ; but his words can- 
not be so interpreted. The cause of the saints still 
waiting for their consummation of bliss, is stated to be 
the will of God, that all the faithful should enter upon 
their full enjoyment of blessedness together. 

Again : it may be asked, whether the following pas- 
sage 2 could have come from the pen of one who prayed 
to the saints, as already reigning with Christ in heaven. 

" But now whether the saints who are removed from 
the body and are with Christ, act at all, and labour for 
us, like the angels who minister to our salvation; or 
whether, again, the wicked removed from the body act 
at all according to the purpose of their own mind, like 
the bad augels, with whom, it is said by Christ, that 
they will be sent into eternal fires ; — let this too be 



1 He thinks it probable, that the saints departed feel an interest in 
the welfare of men on earth. See vol. iv. p. 273. 

2 Epist. ad Rom. lib. ii. (Benedict, vol. iv. p. 479.) "Jam vero 
si etiam," &c. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 147 

considered among the secret things of God, mysteries 
not to be committed to writing." 

In a passage found in Origen's Comment on Ezekiel's 
text l , " Though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they 
should deliver neither son nor daughter, they should 
deliver only their own souls by their righteousness," 
independently of the testimony borne to the point 
before us, we read a very interesting and awakening 
lesson of general application : — 

"First, let us expound the passage agreeably to its 
plain sense, in consequence of the ignorance of some 
who maintain the ideas of their own mind to be the 
truth of God, and often say, ' Every one of us will be 
able by his prayers to snatch whomsoever he will from 
hell,' and introduce iniquity to the Lord ; not seeing 
that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon 
him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon 
him ; so that each shall die in his own sin, and each 
live in his own person. My father being a martyr 
profits me nothing, if I shall not live well, and adorn 
the nobleness of my race, — that is, his testimony and 
confession, by which he was glorified in Christ. It 
profiteth not the Jews to say, ' We were not born 
of fornication, we have one father, the Lord ;' and, 
a little after, 'Abraham is our father.' Whatever 
they may say, whatever they will assume, if they have 
not the faith of Abraham they make their boast in 
vain ; for they will not be saved on account of their 
being children of Abraham. Since, therefore, some 
have formed incorrect notions, we have necessarily 
brought in the plain sense of the passage as to the 
letter, saying, Noah, Daniel, and Job will not rescue 
sons or daughters ; they only will be saved. Let no 

1 Horn. iii. vol. iii. p. 372. 
L 2 



148 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

one of us put his trust in a just father, a holy mother, 
chaste brethren. Blessed is the man who hath his 
hope in himself, and in the right way. But to those 
who place confident trust in the saints, we bring for- 
ward no improper example, — ' Cursed is the man whose 
hope is in man;' and again, 'Trust ye not in man.' 
And this also, ' It is good to trust in the Lord rather 
than in princes V If we must hope in some object, 
leaving all others, let us hope in the Lord, saying, 
' Though a host of men were set against me, yet shall 
not my heart be afraid.' " 

He finishes the homily thus: "The righteous see 
three periods ; the present, the period of change when 
the Lord will judge, and that which will be after the 
resurrection, — that is, the eternity of life in heaven in 
Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and dominion for ever 
and ever. Amen." 

Can this confessor of the Christian faith have ever 
taught his fellow-believers to plead the merits of the 
saints, or to pray for their intercessions ? How strongly 
are the above sentiments contrasted with a passage in 
the third of the spurious homilies called In Diversos; 
the first clause of which is referred to by Bellarmin, as 
containing Origen's approbation of giving honour to the 
saints 2 . 

" The memory of these (the Innocents) is always 



1 These observations may perhaps refer more especially to the 
saints still on earth ; but they apply to all helpers, save God alone. 

2 I hardly need detain the reader by any proof of the spuriousness 
of this passage ; the whole work from which it is taken is rejected 
altogether by the Benedictine editors : " Reliqua ejusmodi spuria 
omittenda censuimus, qualia sunt . . . Homiliae in diversos ;" and 
they have not allowed a single line of it to appear in their volumes, 
not even in the small character. — Vol. iv. p. 1. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 149 

celebrated, as is right, in the Churches. These, there- 
fore, since they were unjustly or impiously put to 
death in peace and rest, having suffered much for the 
name of the Lord, were taken from this world, to 
remain in the eternal Church for ever in Christ. But 
their parents for the merits of their suffering will re- 
ceive a worthy recompense of reward from the just and 
eternal Lord God." Here we have strongly marked 
indeed the difference between Origen himself, and the 
errors fastened upon him by the design or ignorance of 
subsequent times. 

Were not his testimony a subject of great moment, I 
should plead guilty to having detained my readers too 
long on Origen ; and yet I cannot dismiss him without 
first refreshing our minds with the remembrance of 
some of his beautiful reflections on a Christian's prayer. 
We need not read them with a controversial eye, and 
they may be profitable to us all l . 

" I think, then, (says this early teacher in Christ's 
school) that when proceeding to prayer, a Christian 
will be more readily disposed, and be in a better tone 
for the general work of prayer, if he will first tarry a 
little, and put himself into the right frame, casting off 
every distracting and disturbing thought, and with his 
best endeavour recalling to mind the vastness of Him 
to whom he is drawing near, and how unholy a thing it 
is to approach him with a carelessness and indifference, 
and, as it were, contempt ; laying aside also every thing- 
foreign to the subject; — so to come to prayer as one 
who stretcheth forth his soul first, before his hands ; and 
lifts up his mind first, before his eyes, to God ; and 
before he stands up, raising from the ground the lead- 

1 De Oratione, vol. i. § 31. p. 267. 



150 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

ing principle of his nature, and lifting that up to the 
Lord of all. So far casting away all remembrance of 
evil towards any of those who may seem to have injured 
him, as he wishes God not to remember evil against 
him, who has himself been guilty, and has trespassed 
against many of his neighbours, or in whatever he is 
conscious to have done contrary to right reason." 

"Having divided prayer into its several parts" (he 
continues ] ), " I may bring my work to a close. There are 
then four parts of prayer requiring description, which I 
have found scattered in the Scriptures, all of which 
every one should embody in his prayer : — 

" First, we must offer glory (doxologies) to the best of 
our ability in the opening and commencement of our 
prayer, to God through Christ who is glorified with Him 
in the Holy Spirit, who is praised together. After this 
each person should offer general thanksgivings both for 
the blessings granted to all, and for those which he has 
individually obtained from God. After the thanksgiving, 
it appears to me right, that becoming, as it were, a bitter 
accuser of his own sins to God, he should petition first 
of all for a remedy to release him from the habit which 
impels him to transgress, and then for remission of the 
past. And after the confession, I think he ought in 
the fourth place, to add a supplication for great and 
heavenly things, both individual and universal, and for 
his relations and friends. After all, he should close his 
prayer with an ascription of glory to God through 
Christ in the Holy Ghost." 

1 Sect. 33. p. 271. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 151 



SECTION VI. 

SUPPLEMENTARY SECTION ON ORIGEN. 

I have above intimated my intention of reserving 
for a separate section our examination of a passage 
ascribed to Origen, in which he is represented as hav- 
ing invoked an angel to come down from heaven, to 
succour him and his fellow-creatures on earth. The 
passage purports to be part of Origen's comment on the 
opening verse of the prophecy of Ezekiel, " The heavens 
were opened." After the fullest investigation, and 
patient weighing of the whole section, I am fully per- 
suaded, first, that the passage is an interpolation, never 
having come from the pen of Origen ; and secondly, 
that, whoever were its author, it can be regarded only 
as an instance of those impassioned apostrophes, which 
are found in great variety in the addresses of ancient 
Christian orators. But since some of the most re- 
spected writers of the Church of Rome have regarded 
it as genuine, and deemed it worthy of being cited in 
evidence, I feel it incumbent to state at length, for 
those readers who may desire to enter at once fully into 
the question, the reasons on which my judgment is 
founded ; whilst others, who may perhaps consider the 
discussion of the several points here as too great an 
interruption to the general argument, may for the pre- 
sent pass this section, and reserve it for subsequent 
inquiry. 

It will be, in the first place, necessary to quote the 
whole passage entire, however long; for the mere extract 
of that portion which is cited as Origen's prayer to an 



152 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

angel, might leave a false impression as to the real 
merits of the case. 

"The heavens are opened 1 . The heavens were closed, 
and at the coming of Christ they were opened, in order 

THAT THEY BEING LAID OPEN THE HOLY GHOST MIGHT 

come upon him in the appearance of a dove. For he 
could not come to us unless he had first descended on 
one who partook of his own nature. Jesus ascended 
up on high, he led captivity captive, he received gifts 
for men. He who descended is the same who ascended 
above all heavens, that he might fill all things; and he 
gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evan- 
gelists, some as pastors and masters, for the perfecting 
of the saints." 

" [The heavens were opened. It is not enough for one 
heaven to be opened : very many are opened, that not 
from one, but from all, angels may descend to those who 
are to be saved ; angels who ascended and descended 
upon the Son of man, and came to him, and ministered 
to him. Now the angels descended because Christ 
first descended, fearing to descend before the Lord of 
all powers and things commanded. But when they 
saw the chieftain of the army of heaven dwelling in 
earthly places, then they entered through the opened 
road, following their Lord, and obeying his will, who 
distributes them as guardians of those that believe on 
his name. Thou yesterday wast under a devil, to-day 
thou art under an angel. Do not ye, saith the Lord, 
despise one of the least of those who are in the 
Church? Verily, I say unto you, that their angels 
through all things see the face of the Father who is in 
heaven. The angels attend on thy salvation ; they 
were granted for the ministry of the Son of God, and 
1 Vol. iii. p. 358. Horn. i. in Ezek. 



CHAP. IV.] OMGEN. 153 

they say among themselves, If he descended, and de- 
scended into a body, if he is clothed in mortal flesh, 
and endured the cross, and died for man, why are we 
resting idle ? Why do we spare ourselves ? Haste 
away ! Let all of us angels descend from heaven ! 
Thus also was there a multitude of the heavenly host 
praising and blessing God when Christ was born. All 
things are full of angels. Come, angel, take up one 
who by the word is converted from former error, from 
the doctrine of demons, from iniquity speaking on high, 
and taking him up like a good physician, cherish him, 
and instruct him. He is a little child, to-dav he is 
born, an old man again growing young ; and undertake 
him, granting him the baptism of the second regenera- 
tion; and summon to thyself other companions of thy 
ministry, that you all may together train for the faith 
those who have been sometime deceived. For there 
is greater joy in heaven over one sinner repenting, than 
over ninety and nine just persons who need no repent- 
ance. Every creature exults, rejoices with, and with 
applause addresses those who are to be saved ; for the 
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation 
of the sons of God. And although those who have inter- 
polated the apostolical writings are unwilling that such 
passages should be in their books as may prove Christ 
to be the Creator, yet every creature waiteth for the 
sons of God when they shall be freed from sin, when 
they shall be taken away from the hand of Zabulon ', 
when they shall be regenerated by Christ. But now it 
is time that we touch somewhat on the present place. 
The Prophet sees not a vision, but visions of God. 

1 This word is frequently used for " Diabolum." Thus in a 
hymn used in the Roman ritual on Michaelmas-day we read, " Mi- 
chaelem in virtute conterentem Zabulum." 



154 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

Why did he see not one, but many visions ? Hear the 
Lord promising and saying, I have multiplied visions. 
8. ' The fifth month.' This was the fifth year of the 
captivity of king Joachim. In the thirtieth year of 
Ezekiel's age, and the fifth of the captivity of Joachim, 
the prophet is sent to the Jews. The most merciful 
Father did not despise the people, nor leave them a 
long time unadmonished. It is the fifth year. How 
much time intervened ? Five years elapsed since they 
were captives in bondage *.] 

" Immediately the Holy Spirit descends. He opened 
the heavens, that they who were oppressed by the yoke 
of bondage might see those things which were seen by 
the prophet. For when he says, The heavens were 
opened, in some measure they see with the eyes of 
their heart what he had seen even with the eyes of 
his flesh." 

Now the question is, Can this apostrophe to an angel 
be admitted as evidence that Origen held, and in his 
own person acted upon the doctrine of the Invocation 
of Angels ? 

The nature of the present work precludes us from 
entering at length on the broad question, how far we 
can with safety regard the several writings which now 
purport to be translations of Origen's compositions, as 
on the whole the works of that early Christian writer. 
A multitude of those works which, until almost the 
middle of the sixteenth century, were circulated as 
Origen's, have long been by common consent excluded 
from the catalogue of his works 2 . On this subject I 



1 The portion between brackets is what I regard as an interpola- 
tion. 

2 See preface to vol. iv. of the Benedictine edition. 



CHAP. IV.] OEIGEN. 155 

would refer any one, who desires to enter upon the 
inquiry, to the several prefaces of the Benedictine 
editors, who point out many sources of information, 
as well from among their friends as from those with 
whom they differ. Our inquiry must be limited within 
far narrower bounds, though I trust our arguments 
may assist somewhat in establishing the principles on 
which the student may at first guide himself in the 
wider range of investigation. 

We will first look to the external evidence bearing 
on the passage in question, and then to the internal 
character of the passage itself. 

Origen's Commentaries on Ezekiel were divided into 
no fewer than twenty-five volumes, which he is said to 
have begun in Csesarea of Palestine, and to have finished 
in Athens. Of these only one single fragment remains, 
namely, part of the twenty-first volume l . Jerome says 
that he translated fourteen of Origen's homilies on 
Ezekiel. Of these not one passage in the original 
language of Origen is known to be in existence. We 
must now, therefore, either receive the existing trans- 
lations generally as Origen's, (whether they are Jerome's 
translations or not,) or we must consider Origen's homi- 
lies on Ezeziel as altogether lost to us. But supposing 
that we receive these works as containing, on the whole, 
traditionary translations of Origen, the genuineness of 
any one passage may yet become the subject of fair 
criticism. And whilst some persons reject whole masses 
of them altogether, the history of his works cannot but 
suggest some very perplexing points of suspicion and 
doubt. 



1 See Benedictine edition, vol. hi-, p. 351. and Eusebius, Eccl. 
Hist. lib. vi. c. 6. there referred to. 



156 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

The great body of his homilies, Origen probably 
delivered extempore in the early part of his ministry 
to the Christians of Csesarea. Eusebius l tells us, that 
not before Origen had reached his sixtieth year did he 
sanction the notaries (persons well known to history 
and corresponding to the short-hand writers 2 of the 
present day) in publishing any of his homilies. But 
the Benedictine editor, De la Rue, conceives that 
those men might surreptitiously and against the preach- 
er's wishes have published some of Origen's homilies. 
Be this as it may. Suppose that the homilies on 
Ezekiel were published by Origen himself, and were 
translated by Jerome himself, our doubts are not 
removed even by that supposition. The same editor 
in the same preface tells us, " It is known to the 
learned that it was Jerome's habit, in translating Greek, 
sometimes to insert some things of his own 3 ." Not 
that I for a moment conceive the passage under consi- 
deration to have come in its Latin dress from the pen of 
Jerome; for my conviction being that it is an interpola- 
tion of a much later date, I mention the circumstance 
to show, that even when Jerome, with his professed 
accuracy, is the translator, we can in no case feel sure 
that we are reading the exact and precise sentiments of 
Origen. 

1 Eccles. Hist. lib. vi. c. 36. 

2 The Latin word "notarius" (notary) does not come so near as 
our own English expression, "short-hand writer," to the Greek 
word used by Eusebius, — " tachygraphus," "quick- writer." The 
report of Eusebius as to the homilies of Origen having been de- 
livered extempore, and taken down by these " quick-writers," is con v 
firmed by Pamphilus the martyr, as quoted by Valesius, in the 
annotations on this passage of Eusebius. — Apol. Orig. lib. i. 

3 Cui in vertendis Grsecis sciunt eruditi solemne esse nonnulla 
interdum de suo inserere. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 157 

Ruffinus, his celebrated contemporary, accused Je- 
rome of many inaccuracies in his translations ; and yet 
what were the principles of translation adopted by 
Ruffinus himself, as his own, we are not left to infer ; 
for we learn it from his own pen. His voluntary ac- 
knowledgment in the peroration which he added to 
Origen's Comment on the Epistle of St. Paul to the 
Romans, strongly and painfully exhibits to us how little 
dependence can safely be placed on such translations 
whenever the original is lost ; how utterly insufficient 
and unsatisfactory is any evidence drawn from them, as 
to the real genuine sentiments and expressions of the 
author. Ruffinus informs us, that with regard to many 
of the various works of Origen, he changed the 
preacher's extemporary addresses, as delivered in the 
Church, into a more explanatory form, "adding, sup- 
plying, filling up what he thought wanting 1 ." 

Moreover, he proceeds so far as to tell us 2 that his false 

1 Dum supplere cupimus ea quae ab Origene in auditorio Ecclesiae 
extempore (non tarn explanationis quam aedificati orris intentione) 
perorata sunt .... Si addere quod videar, et explere quae desunt. — 
Orig. vol. iv. p. 688. 

2 His words, as indicative of his principles of translation, and bear- 
ing immediately on the question, as to the degree of authority which 
should be assigned to the remains of Origen, when the original is 
lost, deserve a place here : "lam exposed to a new sort of charge 
at their hands ; for thus they address me, — In your writings, since 
very many parts in them (plurima in eis) are considered to be of your 
own production, give the title of your own name, and write, for ex- 
ample, The Books of Explanations of Ruffinus on the Epistle to 
the Romans, — but the whole of this they offer me, not from any 
love of me, but from hatred to the author. But I, who consult my 
conscience more than my fame, even if I am seen to add some things, 
and to fill up what are wanting, or to shorten what are too long, yet I 
do not think it right to steal the title of him, who laid the foundations 
of the works, and supplied the materials for the buildings. Yet, 



158 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

friends had remonstrated with him for not publishing 
the works under his own name, instead of retaining 
Origen's, his changes having been so great ; a point, 
which he was far from unwilling to acknowledge. This 
must appear to every one unsatisfactory in the extreme, 
and to shake one's confidence in any evidence drawn 
from such a source. Indeed, the Benedictine editor, 
with great cause and candour, laments this course of 
proceeding on the part of Ruffinus, as throwing a doubt 
and uncertainty, and suspicion, over all the works so 
tampered with. " This one thing (observes that honest 
editor) would the learned desire, that Ruffinus had 
spared himself the labour of filling up what he thought 
deficient. For since the Greek text has perished, it 
can scarcely with certainty be distinguished, where 
Origen himself speaks, or where Ruffinus obtrudes his 
own merchandise upon us." This is more than enough 
to justify our remarks. I must, however, refer to the 
conduct of another editor and translator of Origen, of a 
similar tendency. It unhappily shows the disposition to 
sacrifice every thing to the received opinions of the 
Church of Rome, rather than place the whole evidence 
of antiquity before the world, and abide by the result. 
How many works this principle, in worse hands, may 
have mutilated, or utterly buried in oblivion, and left to 
perish, it is impossible to conjecture ; that the principle 
is unworthy the spirit of Christianity will not now be 
questioned. That editor and translator, in his advertise- 
ment on the Commentary upon St. John, thus pro- 
fesses the principles which he had adopted 1 : "Know, 
moreover, that I have found nothing in this book which 

in truth, it may be at the option of the reader, when he shall have 
approved of the work, to ascribe the merits to whom he will." 
1 Quoted by the Benedictine, vol. iv. p. viii. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 159 

seemed to be inconsistent with the decrees of holy 
Mother Church : for had I found any, I would not 
have translated the book, or would have marked the 
suspected place." The Benedictine proceeds to say, 
that the writer had not kept his word, but had allowed 
many heterodox passages to escape, whilst he had de- 
liberately withdrawn others. 

Many works probably, of the earliest ages, have been 
wholly or in part lost to us from the working of the 
same principle in its excess. Rather than perpetuate 
any sentiments at variance with the received doctrines 
of the Church, it was considered the duty of the faith- 
ful to let works, in themselves valuable, but containing 
such sentiments, altogether perish, or to exclude the 
objectionable passages. 

I would now invite you to examine the passage itself, 
and determine whether it does not bear within it inter- 
nal evidence of its having been altogether interpolated. 

In the first place, on the words upon which it pro- 
fesses to be a comment, the author had already given 
his comment, and assigned to them another meaning. 
" The heavens were opened," he says : " Before the time 
of Christ the heavens were shut ; but at his advent 
they were opened, that the Holy Spirit might de- 
scend first on Him ;" quoting also among others the 
passage which speaks of Christ taking captivity captive. 
And then after the passage in question, in which he 
assigns a totally different reason for the opening of the 
heavens ; without any allusion to the intervening ideas, 
he carries on, and concludes the comment which he had 
begun, — in words which fit on well with the close of 
that comment, but which, as they stand now at the 
close of the intervening passage about the angels, are 
abrupt and incoherent—" Forthwith the Holy Spirit 



160 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

descended ;" recurring also again to the idea which he 
had before introduced of Christ benefiting those who 
were in captivity. A passage which affixes to the words 
commented upon, a different interpretation from one 
already given in the same paragraph ; and which forces 
itself abruptly and incoherently in the middle of a brief 
comment, must offer itself to our examination under 
strong grounds of suspicion, that it has been inter- 
polated. But when we examine the substance of the 
passage, its sentiments, the ideas conveyed, and the 
associations suggested, and then think of the author to 
whom it is ascribed, few probably will be disposed to 
regard it as a faithful mirror in which to contemplate 
the real sentiments of Origen. 

How utterly unworthy of the sublime burst of Chris- 
tian eloquence which now delights us in undoubted 
works of Origen, is this strange and degrading fiction ! 
The true Origen 1 there represents the tens of thousands 
of angelic spirits ten thousand times told, as ever sur- 
rounding the throne of God, and ministering for the 
blessing of those in whose behalf God himself wills 
them to serve. Here he represents the revelation of 
the holiest of holies as a throwing open of the various 
divisions or compartments of the celestial kingdom for 
all the angels to hasten forth together, from their 
several places of indolence and carelessness and self- 
indulgence, (for such he represents their state to have 
been,) to visit this earth. Surely such a comment would 
better suit the mythology of the cave and dens of 
iEolus and his imprisoned winds (velut agmine facto 
qua data porta ruunt) than the awfully sublime revela- 
tion vouchsafed to the prophet Ezekiel. And how 
unworthy and degrading is that representation of the 

1 Vol. i. p. 761. Contr. Cels. viii. 34. 



CHAP. IV.] ORIGEN. 161 

heavenly host, resting inactive, and sparing themselves 
from toil, until they witnessed Christ's descent and 
humiliation ; and then when chid and put to shame 
and rebuke, and mutually roused to action by their 
fellows, coming down to visit this earth, and rushing 
through the opened portals of heaven. 

Again, we see how incoherent is the whole section 
which contains the alleged prayer to angels: "Thou 
wast yesterday under a demon, to-day thou art under 
an angel : the angels minister to thy salvation ; they 
are granted for the ministry of the Son of God, &c. 
All things are full of angels. Come, Angel, take up 
one who is converted from his ancient error, &c. And 
call to thee other companions of thy ministry, that all 
of you alike may train up to the faith those who were 
once deceived." Indeed the passage seems to carry 
within itself its own condemnation so entirely, that 
what we have before alleged, both of internal and 
external evidence, may appear superfluous. Surely the 
conceit of a preacher of God's word addressing an angel, 
(which of them he thus individually addresses does not 
appear; for he says not " My Angel," as though he were 
appealing to one whom he regarded as his guardian, the 
view gratuitously suggested in the marginal note of 
the Benedictine editor, " the invocation of a guardian 
angel,") and bidding some one angel, as a sort of 
summoner, to go and call to himself all the angels of 
heaven to come in one body, and instruct those who are 
in error, is, even as a rhetorical apostrophe, as unworthy 
the mind of a Christian philosopher, as it is in the 
light of a prayer totally inconsistent with the plain 
sentiments of Origen on the very subject of angelic 
invocation. Even had Origen not left us his deliberate 
opinions in works of undoubted genuineness, such a 

M 



162 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

strange, incoherent, and childish rhapsody could never 
be relied upon by sober and upright men as a pre- 
cedent sanctioning a Christian's prayer to angels ; no 
one would rely upon such evidence in points of far less 
moment, even were it uncontradicted by the same 
witness. 



SECTION VII. 



ST. CYPRIAN '. 



In the middle of the third century, Cyprian 2 , a man 
of substance and a rhetorician of Carthage, was con- 
verted to Christianity. He was then fifty years of age ; 
and his learning, virtues, and devotedness to the cause 
which he had espoused, very soon raised him to the 
dignity, the responsibility, and, in those days, the great 
danger, of the Episcopate \ Many of his writings of 
undoubted genuineness are preserved, and they have 
been appealed to in every age as the works of a faithful 
son of the Catholic Church. On the subject of prayer he 
has written very powerfully and affectingly; but I find no 
expression which can by possibility imply that he prac- 
tised or countenanced the invocation of saints and 
angels. I have carefully examined every sentence 
alleged by its most strenuous defenders, and I cannot 
extract from them one single grain of evidence which 
can bear the test of inquiry. Even did the passages 
quoted require to be taken in the sense affixed to them 

1 Benedictine, Paris, 1726. 2 Jerom, vol. iv. p. 342. 

3 Cyprian is said to have been converted about a.d. 246, to have 
been consecrated a.d. 248, and to have suffered martyrdom a.d. 
258. 



CHAP. IV.] CYPRIAN. 163 

by those advocates, they prove nothing ; they do not 
bear even remotely upon the subject, whilst I am per- 
suaded that to every unprejudiced mind a meaning will 
appear to have been attached to them which the author 
did not intend to convey. 

The first quotation to which our attention is called 
is from the close of his treatise De Habitu Virginum, 
which contains some very edifying reflections. In the 
last clause of that treatise the advocates for the invo- 
cation of saints represent Cyprian as requesting the 
virgins to remember him in their prayers at the throne 
of grace when they shall have been taken to heaven. 
"As we have borne the image of Him who is of the 
earth, let us also bear the image of him who is from 
heaven. This image the virgin-state bears, — integrity 
bears it, holiness and truth bear it ; rules of discipline 
mindful of God bear it, retaining justice with religion, 
firm in the faith, humble in fear, strong to endure all 
things, gentle to receive an injury, readily disposed to 
pity, with one mind and with one heart in brotherly 
peace. All which ye ought, O good virgins, to observe, 
to love and fulfil ; ye who, retired for the sendee of God 
and Christ, with your greater and better part are going 
before towards the Lord to whom you have devoted 
yourselves. Let those who are advanced in age exer- 
cise rule over the younger ; ye younger, offer to your 
equals a stimulus ; encourage yourselves by mutual ex- 
hortations ; by examples emulous of virtue invite each 
other to glory ; remain firm ; conduct yourselves spiri- 
tually ; gain the end happily. Only remember us then, 
when your virgin-state shall begin to be honoured 1 ." 

1 Tantum mementote tunc nostri, cum incipiet in vobis virginitas 
honorari. — Page 180. 

M 2 



164 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

The second instance, from the close of his letter to 
Cornelius, puts before us a beautiful act of friendship 
and brotherly affection worthy of every Christian 
brother's and friend's imitation. But how it can be 
applied in supporting the cause of the invocation of 
saints, I cannot see. The supporters of that doctrine 
say that Cyprian suggests to his friend, still living on 
earth, that whichever of the two should be first called 
away, he should continue when in heaven to pray for 
the survivor on earth. Suppose it to be so. That has not 
any approximation to our praying to one who is already 
dead and gone to his reward. But Cyprian surely 
intended to convey a very different meaning, namely 
this, that the two friends should continue to pray, 
each in his place, mutually for each other and for their 
friends, and relieve each other's wants and necessities 
whilst both survived; and whenever death should 
remove the one from earth to happiness, the survivor 
should not forget their bond of friendship, but should 
still continue to pray to God for their brothers and 
sisters. The passage translated to the letter, runs thus ] : 
" Let us be mutually mindful of each other, with one 
mind and one heart. On both sides, let us always pray 
for each other ; let us by mutual love relieve each other's 
pressures and distresses ; and if either of us from hence, 
by the speed of the Divine favour, go on before the 



1 Epist. 57. Benedict, p. 96. — Memores nostri invicem simus 
Concordes atque unanimes : utrobique pro nobis semper oremus, 
pressuras et angustias mutua caritate relevemus, et si quis istinc nos- 
trum prior divinse dignationis celeritate prsecesserit, perseveret apud 
Dominum nostra dilectio ; pro fratribus et sororibus nostris apud 
misericordiam Patris non cesset oratio. Opto te, frater carissime, 
semper bene valere. — This epistle is by some editors numbered as 
the 60th, by others as the 61st, the 7th, and the 69th, &c. 



CHAP. IV.] CYPRIAN. 165 

other, let our love persevere before the Lord ; for our 
brothers and sisters with the Father's mercy let not 
prayer cease. My desire, most dear brother, is that you 
may always prosper." 

Whether the above view of this passage be founded in 
reason or not, it matters little to the point at issue. Let 
both these passages be accepted in the sense assigned 
to them by some Roman Catholic writers, yet there is 
not a shadow of analogy between the language and 
conduct of Cyprian, and the language and conduct of 
those who now invoke saints departed. In each case 
Cyprian, still in the body, was addressing fellow-crea- 
tures still sojourning on earth. The very utmost which 
these passages could be forced to countenance would 
be, that the righteous, when in heaven, may be mind- 
ful in their prayers of their friends, who are still ex- 
posed to the dangers from which they have themselves 
finally escaped, and who, when both were on earth, 
requested them to remember the survivors in their 
prayers. But this is a question totally different from 
our addressing them in supplication and prayer ; a 
difference which I am most anxious that both myself 
and my readers should keep in mind throughout. 

In the extract from Cyprian's letter, a modern author 
having rendered the single word "utrobique," by the 
words "in this world and the next '," I am induced to add 
a few further observations on the passage. It will, I 
think, appear to most readers on a careful examination of 
the passage, that the expression " utrobique 2 ," " on both 
sides," or "on both parts," whatever be its precise 

1 The Latin original and the version here referred to, will be 
placed side by side in the Appendix. 

2 Utrobique is rendered by Facciolati knaTipuQt — " in utraque 
parte, utrimque." 



166 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

meaning, so far from referring to "tins world and the 
next," must evidently be confined to the condition of 
both parties now in this life, because it stands in direct 
contradistinction to what follows, the supposed case of 
the death of either of the two ; and because it applies 
no less to the mutual relief of each others sufferings 
and afflictions during their joint lives, than to their 
mutual prayers: it cannot mean that all the mutual 
benefits to be derived from their mutual remembrance 
of each other, were to come solely through the means 
of their prayers. They were doubtless mutually to 
pray for each other ; but, in addition to their prayers, 
they were also to relieve each other's pressures and 
difficulties with mutual love, and that too before the 
event afterwards contemplated, namely, the removal of 
one of them by death. 

Bishop Fell thus comments on the passage : " The 
sense seems to be, When either of us shall die ; whether 
I, who preside at Carthage, or you, who are presiding 
at Rome, shall be the survivor, let the prayer to God 
of him whose lot shall be to remain the longest among 
the living, persevere, and continue." " Meanwhile," 
continues the Bishop \ "we by no means doubt that 
souls admitted into heaven apply to God, the best and 
greatest of Beings, that he would have compassion on 
those who are dwelling on the earth. But it does not 
thence follow, that prayers should be offered to the 
saints. The man who petitions them makes them 
gods (Deos qui rogat ille facit 2 )." Rigaltius, himself 

1 See the note of the Benedictine editors on this passage (p. 467), 
in which they refer to the sentiments of Rigaltius, Pamelius, and 
Bishop Fell, whom they call " the most illustrious Bishop of 
Oxford." 

2 Oxford, 1682, p. 143. 



CHAP. IV.] CYPRIAN. 167 

a Roman Catholic, doubts whether, when Cyprian 
wrote this letter, he had any idea before his mind of 
saints departed praying for the living. He translates 
" utrobique" very much as I have done, "with reciprocal 
love, with mutual charity." His last observations on this 
passage are very remarkable. After having confessed 
the sentiments to be worthy of a Christian, that the 
saints pray for us, and having argued that Cyprian 
could not have thought it necessary to ask a saint to 
retain his brotherly kindness in heaven, for he could 
not be a saint if he did not continue to love his 
brethren, he thus concludes : " In truth it is a pious 
and faithful saying \ That of those who having already 
put off mortality are made joint-heirs with Christ, and 
of those who surviving on earth will hereafter be joint- 
heirs with Christ, the Church is one, and is by the 
Holy Spirit so well joined together as not to be torn 
asunder by the dissolution of the body. They pray to 
God for us, and we praise God for them, and thus with 
mutual affection (utrobique) we always pray for each 
other." 

I will detain you only by one or two more extracts 
from Cyprian ; one forming part of the introduction to 
his Comment on the Lord's Prayer, which is fitted for 
the edification of Christians in every age; the other 
closing his treatise on Mortality, one of those beautiful 
productions by which, during the plague which raged 
at Carthage in the year 252, he comforted and exhorted 
the Christians, that they might meet death without fear 
or amazement, in sure and certain hope of eternal 
blessedness in heaven. The sentiments in the latter 
passage will be responded to by every good Catholic, 
whether in communion with the Church of Rome or 
1 Paris, 1666. p. 92. 



168 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

with the Church of England ; whilst in the former we 
are reminded, that to pray as Cyprian prayed, we must 
address ourselves to God alone in the name and trusting 
to the merits only of his blessed Son. 

" He who caused us to live, taught us also to pray, 
with that kindness evidently by which He deigns to 
give and confer on us every other blessing ; that when 
we speak to the Father in the prayer and supplication 
which his Son taught, we might the more readily be 
heard. He had already foretold, that the hour was 
coming when the true worshippers should worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth ; and He fulfilled what He 
before promised, that we, who have received the spirit 
and truth from his sanctification, may from his instruc- 
tion offer adoration truly and spiritually. For what 
prayer can be more spiritual than that which is given 
to us by Christ, by whom even the Holy Spirit is sent 
to us? What can be a more true prayer with the 
Father than that which came from the lips of the Son, 
who is Truth ? So that to pray otherwise than He 
taught, is not only ignorance, but a fault; since He has 
himself laid it down and said, Ye reject the Command- 
ment of God to establish your own traditions. Let us 
pray then, most beloved brethren, as our teacher, God, 
has instructed us. It is a welcome and friendly prayer 
to petition God from his own, to mount up to his ears 
by the prayer of Christ. Let the Father recognize the 
words of his Son. When we offer a prayer let Him 
who dwelleth inwardly in our breast, Himself be in our 
voice ; and since we have Him as our advocate with the 
Father for our sins, when as sinners we are petitioning 
for our sins let us put forth the words of our Advocate K" 

" We must consider, (he says at the close of his 
1 De Orat. Dom. p. 204. 



CHAP. IV.] CYPRIAN. 169 

treatise on the Mortality 1 ,) most beloved brethren, and 
frequently reflect that we have renounced the world, 
and are meanwhile living here as strangers and pil- 
grims. Let us embrace the day which assigns each to 
his own home . . . which restores us to paradise and the 
kingdom of heaven, snatched from hence and liberated 
from the entanglements of the world. What man, 
when he is in a foreign country, would not hasten 
to return to his native land ? . . . We regard paradise as 
our country . . . We have begun already to have the 
patriarchs for our parents. Why do we not hasten 
and run that we may see our country, and salute our 
parents ? There a large number of dear ones are wait- 
ing for us, of parents, brothers, children ; a numerous 
and full crowd are longing for us ; already secure of 
their own immortality, and still anxious for our safety. 
To come to the sight and the embrace of these, how 
great will be the mutual joy to them and to us ! What 
a pleasure of the kingdom of heaven is there without 
the fear of dying, and with an eternity of living ! How 
consummate and never-ending a happiness ! There is 
the glorious company of the apostles ; there is the 
assembly of exulting prophets ; there is the unnum- 
bered family of martyrs crowned for the victory of 
their struggles and suffering ; there are virgins triumph- 
ing, who, by the power of chastity, have subdued the 
lusts of the flesh and the body ; there are the merciful 
recompensed, who with food and bounty to the poor 
have done the works of righteousness, who keeping the 
Lord's commands have transferred their earthly inherit- 
ance into heavenly treasures. To these, O most dearly 
beloved brethren, let us hasten with most eager long- 

1 Page 236. 



170 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

ing ; let us desire that our lot may be to be with these 
speedily; to come speedily to Christ. Let God see 
this to be our thought ; let our Lord Christ behold this 
to be the purpose of our mind and faith, who will give 
more abundant rewards of his glory to them, whose 
desires for himself have been the greater," 
Such is the evidence of St. Cyprian. 



SECTION VIII. 
LACTANTIUS 1 . 

Cyprian suffered martyrdom about the year 260. 
Towards the close of this century, and at the beginning 
of the fourth, flourished Lactantius. He was deeply 
imbued with classical learning and philosophy. Before 
he became a writer (as Jerome 2 informs us) he taught 
rhetoric at Nicomedia; and afterwards in extreme old 
age he was the tutor of Cassar Crispus, son of Constan- 
tine, in Gaul. Among many other writings which 
Jerome enumerates, he specifies the book, "On the 
Anger of God," as a most beautiful work. Bellarmin, 
however, speaks of him disparagingly, as one who had 
fallen into many errors, and was better -versed in Cicero 
than in the Holy Scriptures. His testimony is allowed 
by the supporters of the adoration of spirits and angels 
to be decidedly against them ; they do not refer to a 
single passage likely to aid their cause; and they are 
chiefly anxious to depreciate his evidence. I will call 
your attention only to two passages in his works. The 

1 Ed. Lenglet Dufresnoy, 1748. 

2 Jerom, vol. iv. part ii. p. 119. Paris, 1706. 



CHAP. IV.] LACTANTIUS AND EUSEBIUS. 171 

one is in his first book on False Religion ! : " God hath 
created ministers, whom we call messengers (angels) ; . . . 
but neither are these gods, nor do they wish to be 
called gods, nor to be worshipped, as being those who 
do nothing beyond the command and will of God." 

The other passage is from his work on a Happy Life 2 : 
" Nor let any one think that souls are judged immedi- 
ately after death. For all are kept in one common 
place of guard, until the time come when the great 
Judge will institute an inquiry into their deserts. Then 
those whose righteousness shall be approved, will re- 
ceive the reward of immortality ; and those whose sins 
and crimes are laid open shall not rise again, but shall 
be hidden in the same darkness with the wicked — 
appointed to fixed punishments." 

This composition is generally believed to have been 
written about the year 317. 



SECTION IX. 



The evidence of Eusebius, on any subject connected 
with primitive faith and practice, cannot be looked to 
without feelings of deep interest. He flourished about 
the beginning of the fourth century, and was Bishop of 
Ceesarea, in Palestine. His testimony has always been 
appealed to in the Catholic Church, as an authority 
not likely to be gainsaid. He was a voluminous writer, 
and his writings were very diversified in their character. 

1 Vol. i. p. 31. ' 2 Chap. xxi. p. 574. 

3 Cambridge, 1720, and Paris, 1628. 



172 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

Whatever be our previous sentiments we cannot too 
carefully examine the remains of this learned man. 
But in his writings, historical, biographical, contro- 
versial, or by whatever name they may be called, over- 
flowing bs they are with learning, philosophical and 
scriptural, I can find no one single passage which coun- 
tenances the decrees of the Council of Trent ; not one 
passage which would encourage me to hope that I 
prayed as the primitive Church was wont to pray, if by 
invocation I requested an angel or a saint to procure me 
any favour, or to pray for me. The testimony of Euse- 
bius has a directly contrary tendency. 

Among the authorities quoted by the champions of 
the invocation of saints, I can find only three from Eu- 
sebius ; and I sincerely lament the observations which 
truth and justice require me to make here, in conse- 
quence of the manner in which his evidence has been 
cited. The first passage to which I refer is quoted by 
Bellarmin from the history of Eusebius \ to prove that 
the spirit of a holy one goes direct from earth to heaven. 
This passage is not from the pen of Eusebius ; and if it 
were, it would not bear on our inquiry. The second is 
quoted by the same author, from the Evangelica Prse- 
paratio 2 , to prove that the primitive Christians offered 
prayers to the saints. Neither is this from the pen of 
Eusebius. The third Extract, from the account of the 
martyrdom of Polycarp, is intended to prove that the 
martyrs were worshipped. Even this, one of the most 
beautiful passages in ancient history, as it is represented 
by Bellarmin and others, is interpolated. 

The first passage, which follows a description of the 



1 Ed. Cam., vol. i. book vi. ch. 5. p. 263. 

2 Ed. Par. 1628. vol. i. book xiii. ch. 11. p. 663. 



CHAP. IV.] EUSEBIUS. 173 

martyr Potamisena's sufferings, is thus quoted by Bellar- 
min ] : "In this manner the blessed virgin, Potamiaena, 
emigrated from earth to heaven." And such, doubtless, 
is the passage in the translation of Eusebius, ascribed 
to Ruffinus 2 ; but the original is, "And such a struggle 
was thus accomplished by this celebrated virgin 3 ;" and 
such is the Parisian translation of 1581. 

The second misquotation is far more serious. Bel- 
larmin thus quotes Eusebius 4 : " These things we do 
daily, who honouring the soldiers of true religion as the 
friends of God, approach to their respective monu- 
ments, and make our prayers to them, as holy men, by 
whose intercession to God. we profess to be not a little 
aided." 

By one who has not by experience become familiar 
with these things it would scarcely be believed, that 
whilst the readers of Bellarmin have been taught to 
regard these as the words of Eusebius, in the original 
there is no mention whatever made of the intercession 
of the saints; that there is no allusion to prayer to 
them ; that there is no admission even of anv benefit 
derived from them at all. This quotation Bellarmin 
makes from the Latin version, published in Paris in 
1581, or from some common source: it is word for 
word the same. We must either allow him to be ip-no- 
rant of the truth, or to have designedly preferred error. 

1 Hoc modo beata Virgo emigravft e terris ad ccelum. Vol. ii. 
p. 854. 

2 Basil, 1535. p. 134. 

3 kcii 6 p.zv rriQ aoLcifiov Koprjg tolovtoc KarrjyojrioTO dOXoc. — Tale 
certamen ab hac percelebri et gloriosa virgine confectum fuit. 

4 Haec nos, inquit, quotidie factitamus qui verse pietatis milites ut 
Dei amicos honorantes, ad monumenta quoque eorum accedirrms, 
votaque ipsis facimus tanquam viris Sanctis quorum intercessione ad 
Deum non parum juvari profitemur. — p. 902. He quotes it as c. 7. 



174 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

The copy which I have before me of the " Evangelica 
Prseparatio," in Greek and Latin, was printed in 1628, 
and dedicated by Viger Franciscus, a priest of the order 
of Jesuits, to the Archbishop of Paris. 

Eusebius, marking the resemblance in many points 
between Plato's doctrine and the tenets of Christianity, 
on the reverence which, according to Plato, ought to 
be paid to the good departed, makes this observation ] : 
"And this corresponds with what takes place on the 
death of those lovers of God, whom you would not be 
wrong in calling the soldiers of the true religion. 
Whence also it is our custom to proceed to their tombs, 
and at them [the tombs] to make our prayers, and to 
honour their blessed souls, inasmuch as these things are 
with reason done by us." This translation agrees to a 
certain extent with the Latin of Viger's edition 2 ; 
though the translator there has employed words more 
favourable to the doctrine of the saints' adoration, than 
he could in strictness justify. 

The celebrated letter from the Church of Smyrna 3 , 
relating the martyrdom of Polycarp, one of the most 
precious relics of Christian antiquity, has already been 
examined by us, when we were inquiring into the re- 



Kal ravra de aofio'Cti ek\ rrj rS)v 6eo([)i\u)i' reXevrrj ovg orpa- 
tiiotolq Trjg dkrjdovg tvaefielug uy$ av a/idproiQ ei7riby 7rapa\aju/:>a- 
verrdai' oQev Kai eVi tciq Q^kciq abriov edog }ifjuv Trapilvai kui rag 
eh)(a.Q napd ravraiQ Troizirrdai, Tifiav re rdc; fxaicapiciQ avriov \pw%dg, 
we £i/\oya>£ Kat tovtwv ixf) rffjcwv yiyvojJiiviovi 

2 Quae quidem in hominum Deo carissimorum obitus egregie con- 
veniunt, quos verae pietatis milites jure appellaris. Nam et eorum 
sepulchra celebrare etprecesibi votaque nuncupare et beatas illorum 
animas venerari eonsuevimus, idque a nobis merito fieri statuimus. 

3 Euseb. Cantab. 1720. vol. i. p 4 163. 



CHAI\ IV.] EUSEBIUS. 175 

corded sentiments of Polycarp ; and to our reflections 
in that place we have little to add. The interpolations 
to which we have now referred, are intended to take 
off the edge of the evidence borne by this passage of 
Eusebius against the invocation of saints. First, whereas 
the Christians of Smyrna are recorded by Eusebius to 
have declared, without any limitation or qualification 
whatever, that they could never worship any fellow- 
mortal however honoured and beloved, the Parisian 
edition limits and qualifies their declaration by inter- 
polating the word " as God," implying that they would 
offer a secondary worship to a saint. Again, whereas 
Eusebius in contrasting the worship paid to Christ, 
with the feelings of the Christians towards a martyr, 
employs only the word "love," Bellarmin, following 
Ruffinus, interpolates the word " veneramur" after 
" diligimus," a word which may be innocently used with 
reference to the holy saints and servants of God, though 
it is often in ancient writers employed to mean the 
religious worship of man to God. Still how lament- 
able is it to attempt by such tampering with ancient 
documents to maintain a cause, whatever be our feel- 
ings with regard to it ! 

With two more brief quotations we will close our 
report of Eusebius. They occur in the third chapter of 
the third book of his Demonstratio Evangelica, and 
give the same view of the feelings and sentiments of 
the primitive Christians towards the holy angels, which 
we have found Origen and all the other fathers to have 
acknowledged. 

" In the doctrine of his word 1 we have learned that 
there exists, after the most high God, certain powers, 

1 Demonst. Evang. Paris, 1628. p. 106. 



176 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

in their nature incorporeal and intellectual, rational 
and purely virtuous, who l keep their station around 
the sovereign King, — the greater part of whom, by cer- 
tain dispensations of salvation, are sent at the will of 
the Father even as far as to men ; whom, indeed, we 
have been taught to know and to honour, according to 
the measure of their dignity, rendering to God alone, 
the sovereign King, the honour of worship 2 ." Again: 
" Knowing the divine, the serving and ministering 
powers of the sovereign God, and honouring them to 
the extent of propriety ; but confessing God alone, and 
Him alone worshipping 3 ." 



SECTION X. 

APOSTOLICAL CANONS AND CONSTITUTIONS. 

The works known by the name of the Apostolical 
Constitutions and Apostolical Canons, though confess- 
edly not the genuine productions of the Apostles, or of 
their age, have been always held in much veneration 
by the Church of Rome. The most learned writers 4 
fix their date at a period not more remote than the 
beginning of the fourth century. I invite the reader 



yopevova-ag. 

2 yvivpi^etv iced TI/JCJ.V Kara ~o fiirpov ttjq afyag Edih^d-q^EV, fiovu) 
T(p 7rafji(3a(nXel. Gew rrjv aej^dafxtov rijirfv airovijiovTEg. 

3 Praepar. Evang. lib. vii. c. 15. p. 237. dEiag fxEv lvva.fM.LQ vtt- 
7]0ETLKaQ rov TrafjLJjaaiXiiog Qeov Kal Xei-ovpyiKag iiloTEQ, Kai Kara to 
~poarJKoy rifiu/vreQ' fxovov ce Qeov ofioXoyovvrec, teal fxovov IksIvov 
aifiovTEc. 

4 See Cotelerius, vol. i. p. 194 and 424. Beveridge, in the same 
vol. p. 427. Cone. Gen. Florence, 1759, torn. i. p. 29 and 254. 



CHAP. IV.] APOSTOLICAL CANONS, &C. 177 

to examine both these documents, but especially the 
Constitutions, and to decide whether they do not con- 
tain strong and convincing evidence, that the invoca- 
tion of saints was not practised or known in the Church 
when they were written. Minute rules are given for 
the conducting of public worship ; forms of prayer are 
prescribed to be used in the Church, by the bishops 
and clergy, and by the people ; forms of prayer and of 
thanksgiving are recommended for the use of the faith- 
ful in private, in the morning, at night, and at their 
meals ; forms, too, there are of creeds and confessions ; 
— but not one single allusion to any religious address 
to angel or saint ; whilst occasions most opportune for 
the introduction of such doctrine and practice repeat- 
edly occur, and are uniformly passed by. Again and 
again prayer is directed to be made to the one only 
living and true God, exclusively through the mediation 
and intercession of the one only Saviour Jesus Christ. 
Honourable mention is made of the saints of the Old 
Testament, and the apostles and martyrs of the New ; 
directions are also given for the observance of their fes- 
tivals l ; but not the shadow of a thought appears that 
their good offices could benefit us ; much less the most 
distant intimation that Christians might invoke them 
for their prayers and intercessions. There is indeed very 
much in these early productions of the Christian world 
to interest every Catholic Christian; and although a 
general admiration of the principles for the most part 
pervading them does not involve an entire approbation 
of them all, yet perhaps few would think the time mis- 
applied which they should devote to the examination 
of these documents. 

1 Book viii. p. 415. 

N 



178 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

In book v. c. 6. 1 of the Constitutions, the martyr is 
represented as " trusting in the one only true God and 
Father, through Jesus Christ, the great High Priest, 
the Redeemer of souls, the Dispenser of rewards ; to 
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." 

In the same book and in the following chapter we 
find an exceedingly interesting dissertation on the 
general resurrection, but not one word of saint or 
martyr being beforehand admitted to glory; on the 
contrary, the declaration is distinct, that not the 
martyrs only, but all men will rise. Surely such an 
opportunity would not have been lost of stating the 
doctrine of martyrs being now reigning with Christ, 
had such been the doctrine of the Church at that early 
period. 

In the eighth chapter is contained an injunction to 
honour the martyrs in these words : " We say that 
they should be in all honour with you, as the blessed 
James the bishop and our holy fellow-minister Stephen 
were honoured with us. For they are blessed by God 
and honoured by holy men, pure from all blame, never 
bent towards sins, never turned away from good, — 
undoubtedly to be praised. Of whom David spake, 
'Honourable before God is the death of his saints;' 
and Solomon, ' The memory of the just is with praise.' 
Of whom the prophet also said, 'Just men are taken 
away 2 .'" 

And in book viii. c. 13. we read this exhortation, — 
" Let us remember the holy martyrs, that we may be 
counted worthy to be partakers of their conflict 3 ." 

Does this sound any thing at all like adoration or 
invocation? The word which is used in the above 

1 Cotel. vol. i. p. 304. 2 p. 309. 3 p. 404. 



CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 179 

passage, honour \ is employed when (book ii. c. 28.) 
the respect is prescribed which the laity ought to show 
to the clergy. 

To the very marked silence as to any invocation, or 
honour, to be shown to the Virgin Mary, I shall call 
your attention in our separate dissertation on the wor- 
ship now offered to her. 



SECTION XI. 



The renowned and undaunted defender of the Catholic 
faith against the errors which in his day threatened to 
overwhelm Gospel-truth, Athanasius (the last of those 
ante-Nicene writers into whose testimony we have 
instituted this inquiry), was born about the year 296, 
and, after having presided in the Church as Bishop for 
more than forty-six years, died in 373, on the verge of 
his eightieth year. It is impossible for any one inter- 
ested in the question of primitive truth to look upon the 
belief and practice of this Christian champion with indif- 
ference. When I first read Bellarmin's quotations from 
Athanasius, in justification of the Roman Catholic wor- 
ship in the adoration of saints, I was made not a little 
anxious to ascertain the accuracy of his allegations. The 
inquiry amply repaid me for my anxiety and the labour 
of research ; not merely by proving the unsoundness 
of Bellarmin's representation, but also by directing my 
thoughts more especially, as my acquaintance with his 

1 Tirf. p. 241. 2 Ed. Paris, 1698. 

n2 



180 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

works increased, to the true and scriptural views taken 
by Athanasius of the Christian's hope and confidence in 
God alone ; the glowing fervour of his piety centering 
only in the Lord ; his sure and certain hope in life and 
in death anchored only in the mercies of God, through 
the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ alone. 

Bellarmin, in his appeal to Athanasius as a wit- 
ness in behalf of the invocation of saints, cites two 
passages ; the one of which, though appearing in the 
edition of the Benedictines, amongst the works called 
doubtful, has been adjudged by those editors l to be not 
genuine ; the other is placed by them among the con- 
fessedly spurious works, and is treated as a forgery. 

The first passage is from a treatise called De Virgini- 
tate, and even were that work the genuine production 
of Athanasius, would make against the religious worship 
of the saints rather than in its favour, for it would show, 
that the respect which the author intended to be paid 
to them, was precisely the same with what he would 
have us pay to holy men in this life, who might 
come to visit us. " If a just man enter into thine 
house, thou shalt meet him with fear and trembling, 
and shalt worship before his feet to the ground: for 
thou wilt not worship him, but God who sent him." 

The other passage 2 would have been decisive as to 
the belief of Athanasius, had it come from his pen. 
" Incline thine ear, O Mary, to our prayers, and forget 
not thy people. We cry to thee. Remember us, O 
Holy Virgin. Intercede for us, O mistress, lady, queen, 
and mother of God." 

Had Bellarmin been the only writer, or the last who 
cited this passage as the testimony of St. Athana- 

1 Vol. ii. p. 110 and 122. , 2 Vol. ii. p. 390—401. 






CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 181 

skis, it would have been enough for us to refer to the 
judgment of the Benedictine editors, who have classed 
the homily containing these words among the spurious 
works ascribed to Athanasius ; or rather we might have 
appealed to Bellarmin himself. For it is very remark- 
able, that though in his anxiety to enlist every able 
writer to defend the cause of the invocation of saints, 
he has cited this passage in his Church Triumphant as 
containing the words of Athanasius, without any allu- 
sion to its decided spuriousness, or even to its suspicious 
character ; yet when he is pronouncing his judgment 
on the different works assigned to Athanasius, declar- 
ing the evidence against this treatise to be irresistible, 
he condemns it as a forgery '. 

Since, however, this passage has been cited in differ- 
ent Roman Catholic writers 2 of our own time as con- 
taining the words of Athanasius, and in evidence of his 
genuine belief and practice, and that without an allu- 
sion even to any thing doubtful and questionable in its 
character, it becomes necessary to enter more in detail 
into the circumstances under which the passage is 
offered to our notice. 

The passage is found in a homily called The An- 
nunciation of the Mother of God. How long this 
homily has been discarded as spurious, or how long 
its genuineness had been suspected before the time of 
Baronius, I have not discovered ; but certainly two cen- 
turies and a half ago, and repeatedly since, it has been 
condemned as totally and indisputably spurious, and 
has been excluded from the works of Athanasius as a 
forgery, not by members of the Reformed Church, but 

1 Bellarm. de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, Cologne, 1617, vol. vii. 
p. 50. 

2 See Appendix. 



182 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

by most zealous and steady adherents to the Church of 
Rome, and the most strenuous defenders of her doc- 
trines and practice. 

The Benedictine editors \ who published the remains 
of St. Athanasius in 1698, class the works contained 
in the second volume under two heads, the doubtful 
and the spurious ; and the homily under consideration 
is ranked, without hesitation, among the spurious. In 
the middle of that volume they not only declare the 
work to be unquestionably a forgery, assigning the 
reasons for their decision, but they fortify their judg- 
ment by quoting at length the letter written by the 
celebrated Baronius, more than a century before, to 
our countryman, Stapleton. Both these documents are 
very interesting. 

The Benedictine editors begin their preface thus : 
"That this discourse is spurious, there is no learned 
man who does not now adjudge . . . The style proves 
itself more clear than the sun, to be different from that 
of Athanasius. Besides this, very many trifles show 
themselves here unworthy of any sensible man what- 
ever, not to say Athanasius .... and a great number 
of expressions unknown to Athanasius .... so that it 
savours of inferior Greek. And truly his subtle dispu- 



1 Here I would observe, that though the Benedictine editors differ 
widely from each other in talent, and learning, and candour, yet, as a 
body, they have conferred on Christendom, and on literature, bene- 
fits for which every impartial and right-minded man will feel gra- 
titude. In the works of some of these editors, far more than in 
others, we perceive the same reigning principle — a principle which 
some will regard as an uncompromising adherence to the faith of the 
Church ; but which others can regard only in the light of a prejudice, 
and a rooted habit of viewing all things through the eyes of Rome. 



CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 183 

tation on the hypostasis of Christ, and on the two 
natures in Christ, persuades us, that he lived after the 
councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon ; of which councils 
moreover he uses the identical words, whereas his 
dissertation on the two wills in Christ seems to argue, 
that he lived after the spreading of the error of the 
Monothelites. But (continue these Benedictine editors) 
we would add here the dissertation of Baronius on 
this subject, sent to us by our brethren from Rome. 
That illustrious annotator, indeed, having read only the 
Latin version of Nannius, which is clearer than the 
Greek, did not observe the astonishing perplexity of 
the style V 

The dissertation which the Benedictine editors ap- 
pend, was contained in a letter written by Baronius to 
Stapleton, in consequence of some animadversions 
which Stapleton had communicated to Cardinal Allen 
on the judgment of Baronius. The letter is dated 
Rome, November, 1592. The judgment of Baronius 
on the spurious character of this homily had been 
published to the world some time previously ; for after 
some preliminary words of kindness and respect to his 
correspondent, Baronius proceeds to say, that when he 
previously published his sentiments on this homily, it 
was only cursorily and by the way, his work then 
being on another subject. Nevertheless he conceived, 

1 Even in the Bibliotheca Patrum Concionatoria the homily is 
declared to be not the work of Athanasius, but to have been written 
after the sixth general council. "It is evident," say the editors, 
" that it is the monument of a very learned man, though he has his 
own blemishes, on which, for the most part, we have remarked in 
the margin." Paris, 1662. p. 336. 



184 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

that the little he had then stated would be sufficient 
to show, that the homily was not the production of 
Athanasius, and that all persons of learning, who were 
desirous of the truth, would freely agree with him ; 
nor was he in this expectation disappointed ; for very 
many persons expressed their agreement with him, con- 
gratulating him on separating legitimate from spurious 
children. He then states the arguments which the 
Benedictine editors adopted after him, and which we 
need not repeat. But he also urges this fact, that 
though Cyril had the works of Athanasius in his 
custody, and though both the disputing parties ran- 
sacked every place for sentiments of Athanasius coun- 
tenancing their tenets, yet neither at Ephesus nor at 
Chalcedon was this homily quoted, though it must have 
altogether driven Eutyches and Nestorius from the 
field, so exact are its definitions and statements on the 
points then at issue. Baronius then adds, that so far 
from reversing the judgment which he had before 
passed against the genuineness of this homily, he was 
compelled in justice to declare his conviction, that it 
could not have been written till after the heresy of the 
Monothelites had been spread abroad. This we know 
would fix its date, at the very earliest, subsequently to the 
commencement of the seventh century, three hundred 
years after Athanasius attended the Council of Nice. 
Among the last sentiments of Baronius in this letter, 
is one which implies a principle worthy of Christian 
wisdom, and which can never be neglected without 
injury to the cause of truth. " These sentiments 
concerning Athanasius I do not think are affirmed with 
any detriment to the Church ; for the Church does 
not suffer a loss on this account ; who being the pillar 



CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 185 

and ground of the truth, very far shrinks from seeking, 
like iEsop's Jackdaw, helps and ornaments which are 
not her own : the bare truth shines more beautiful in her 
own naked simplicity." Were this principle acted upon 
uniformly in our discussions on religious points of 
faith or practice, controversy would soon be drawn 
within far narrower limits ; and would gradually be 
softened into a friendly interchange of sentiments, and 
would well-nigh be banished from the world. No per- 
son does the cause of truth so much injury, as one who 
attempts to support it by arguments which will not bear 
the test of full and enlightened investigation. And 
however an unsound principle may be for a while main- 
tained by unsound arguments, the momentary triumph 
must ultimately end in disappointment. 

Coccius also cites two passages as conveying the evi- 
dence of Athanasius on this same point ; one from the 
spurious letter addressed to Felix, the pope ; the other 
from the treatise to Marcellus, on the interpretation of 
the Psalms. On the former, I need not detain you by 
any observation ; it would be fighting with a shadow. 
The latter, which only recognises what I have never 
affirmed or denied here, — the interest in our welfare 
taken by holy souls departed, and their co-operation 
with us when we are working out our own salvation, — 
contains a valuable suggestion on the principles of 
devotion. 

"Let no one, however, set about to adorn these 
Psalms for the sake of effect with words from without, 
[artificial and secular phrases,] nor transpose, nor alter 
the expressions. But let every one inartificially read 
and repeat what is written, that those holy persons 
who employed themselves in their production, recog- 
nising their own works, may join with us in prayer; or 



186 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

rather that the Holy Spirit, who spake in those holy 
men, observing the words with which his voice inspired 
them, may assist us. For just as much as the life of 
those holy men is more pure than ours, so far are their 
words preferable to any production of our own." 

But whilst there is not found a single passage in 
Athanasius to give the faintest countenance to the 
invocation of saints, there are various arguments and 
expressions which go far to demonstrate that such a 
belief and such practices as are now acknowledged and 
insisted upon by the Church of Rome, were neither 
adopted nor sanctioned by him. Had he adopted that 
belief and practice for his own, he would scarcely have 
spoken, as he repeatedly has, of the exclusion of angels 
and men from any share in the work of man's restora- 
tion, without any expressions to qualify it, and to pro- 
tect his assertions from being misunderstood. Again, 
he bids us look to the holy men and holy fathers as 
our examples, in whose footsteps we should tread, if 
we would be safe ; but not a hint escapes him that 
they are to be invoked. 

I must detain you by rather a long quotation from 
this father, and will, therefore, now do nothing more 
than refer you to two passages expressive of those 
sentiments to which I have above alluded. In the 
thirteenth section of his Treatise on the Incarnation 
of the Word of God, he argues \ that neither could 
men restore us to the image of God, nor could angels, 
but the word of God, Jesus Christ, &c. In his Epistle 
to Dracontius, he says 2 , "We ought to conduct our- 
selves agreeably to the principles of the saints and 
fathers, and to imitate them, — assured that if we 

1 Vol. i. part i. p. 58. 2 Vol. i. parti, p. 265. 



CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 187 

swerve from them, we become alienated also from their 
communion." 

The passage, however, to which I would invite the 
reader's patient and impartial thoughts, occurs in the 
third oration against the Arians, when he is proving 
the unity of the Father and the Son, from the expres- 
sion of St. Paul in the eleventh verse of the third 
chapter of his first Epistle to the Thessalonians. 

" Thus then again ', when he is praying for the Thes- 
salonians, and saying, ' Now our God and Father him- 
self and the Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you,' 
he preserves the unity of the Father and the Son. For 
he says not ' may they direct V as though a twofold 
grace were given from Him and Him, but ' may he 
direct 3 ,' to show that the Father giveth this through 
the Son. For if there was not an unity, and the Word 
was not the proper offspring of the Father's substance, 
as the eradiation of the light, but the Son was distinct 
in nature from the Father, — it had sufficed for the 
Father alone to have made the gift, no generated being 
partaking with the Maker in the gifts. But now such 
a giving proves the unity of the Father and the Son. 
Consequently, no one would pray to receive any thing 
from God and the angels, or from any other created 
being ; nor would any one say ' May God and the angels 
give it thee ;' but from the Father and the Son, because 
of their unity and the oneness of the gift. For whatever 
is given, is given through the Son,— nor is there any 
thing which the Father works except through the Son ; 
for thus the receiver has the gracious favour without fail. 
But if the patriarch Jacob, blessing his descendants 
Ephraim and Manasseh, said, ' The God who nourished 

Vol. i. p. 561. ovt(o y ovv irdXtv. 2 KaTevdvvoiev. 3 Karevdvyai. 



188 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

me from my youth unto this day, the Angel who delivered 
me from all the evils, bless these lads ;' he does not join 
one of created beings, and by nature angels, with God 
who created them ; nor dismissing Him who nourished 
him, God, does he ask the blessing for his descendants 
from an angel, but by saying ' He who delivered me 
from all the evils,' he showed that it was not one of 
created angels, but the word of God ; and joining him 
with the Father, he supplicated him through whom 
also God delivers whom he will. For he used the ex- 
pression, knowing him who is called the Messenger of 
the great counsel of the Father to be no other than 
the very one who blessed and delivered from evil. For 
surely he did not aspire to be blessed himself by God, 
and was willing for his descendants to be blessed by 
an angel But the same whom he addressed, saying, 
I will not let Thee go, except thou bless me (and this 
was God, as he says, 'I saw God face to face'), Him 
he prayed to bless the sons of Joseph. The peculiar 
office of an angel is to minister at the appointment of 
God ; and often he went onwards to cast out the 
Amorite, and is sent to guard the people in the way ; 
but these are not the doings of him, but of God, who 
appointed him and sent him, — whose also it is to deli- 
ver whom he will." 

" For this cause David addressed no other on the 
subject of deliverance but God Himself. But if it 
belongs to no other than God to bless and deliver, 
and it was no other who delivered Jacob than the Lord 
Himself, and the patriarch invoked for his descendants 
Him who delivered him, it is evident that he connected 
no one in his prayer except His Word, whom for this 
reason he called an angel, because he alone reveals the 
Father." 



CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 189 

" But this no one would say of beings produced and 
created ; for neither when the Father worketh does any 
one of the angels, or any other of created beings, work 
the things ; for no one of such beings is an effective 
cause, but they themselves belong to things produced. 
The angels then, as it is written, are ministering spirits 
sent to minister ; and the gifts given by Him through 
the Word they announce to those who receive them." 

Now if the invocation of angels had been practised by 
the Church at that time, can it be for a moment be- 
lieved, that a man of such a mind as was the mind of 
Athanasius, a mind strong, clear, logical, cultivated with 
ardent zeal for the doctrines of the Church, and fervent 
piety, would have suffered such passages as these to fall 
from him, without one saving clause in favour of the 
invocation of angels ? He tells us in the most unqua- 
lified manner, that they act merely as ministers ; ready 
indeed, and rejoicing to be employed on errands of mercy, 
but not going one step without the commands of the 
Lord, or doing one thing beyond his word. Had the idea 
been familiar to the mind of Athanasius, of the lawful- 
ness, the duty, the privilege, the benefit of invoking 
them, would he have avoided the introduction of some 
words to prevent his expressions from being misunder- 
stood and misapplied, as subsequent writers did long- 
before the time when the denial of the doctrine might 
seem to have made such precaution more necessary ? 

I close then the catalogue of our witnesses before 
the Council of Niceea with the testimony of St. Atha- 
nasius ; whose genuine and acknowledged works afford 
not one jot or tittle in support of the doctrine and 
practice of the invocation of angels and saints, as now 
insisted upon by the Church of Rome ; and the direct 



190 THE EVIDENCE OF [PART I. 

tendency of whose evidence is decidedly hostile both 
to that doctrine and that practice. 

I have seen it observed by some who are satisfied, 
that the records of primitive antiquity do not contain 
such references to the invocation of saints and angels, 
as we might have expected to find had the custom then 
prevailed, that the earliest Christians kept back the 
doctrine and concealed it, though they held it ; fearing 
lest their heathen neighbours should upbraid them with 
being as much polytheists as themselves '. This is 
altogether a gratuitous assumption, directly contrary 
to evidence, and totally inconsistent with their con- 
duct. Had those first Christians acted upon such a 
debasing principle, they would have kept back and 
concealed their worship of the Son and of the Holy 
Ghost, as exposing them to a similar charge. They 
were constantly upbraided with worshipping a crucified 

1 Bishop Morley, (London, 1683,) in a letter written whilst he 
was in exile at Breda, to J. Ulitius, refers to Cardinal Perron, " Re- 
plique a la Resp. du Roy de la Grande Bret." p. 1402 and 4, for 
this sentiment : " The Fathers do not always speak what they think, 
but conceal their real sentiments, and say that which best serves the 
cause which they sustain, so as to protect it against the objections of 
the gentiles. The Fathers, as much as in them lies, and as far as 
they can, avoid and decline all occasions of speaking about the invo- 
cation of saints then practised in the Church, fearing lest to the 
gentiles there might appear a sort of similarity, although untrue and 
equivocal, between the worship paid to the saints by the Church, and 
by the Pagans to their false divinities ; and lest the Pagans might 
thence seize a handle, however unfair, of retorting upon them that 
custom of the Church." Had a member of the Anglican Church 
thus spoken of the Fathers, and thus pleaded in their name guilty of 
subterfuge and duplicity, he would have been immediately charged 
with irreverence and wanton insult, and that with good reason. 
These sentiments of the Cardinal are in p. 982 of the Paris edition 
of 1620. 



CHAP. IV.] ATHANASIUS. 191 

mortal ; but instead of either meeting that charge by 
denying that they worshipped Jesus as their God, or of 
concealing the worship of Him, lest they should expose 
themselves again to such upbraidings, they publicly 
professed, that He whom the Jews had murdered, they 
believed in as the Son of God, Himself their God. 
They gloried in the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity, 
and did not fear what men might do to them, or say of 
them in consequence. Had they believed in the duty 
of invoking saints and angels, the high principle of 
Christian integrity would not have suffered them to 
be ashamed to confess it, or to practise openly what 
they believed. 



PART II.— CHAPTER I. 



STATE OF WORSHIP AT THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION. 

One of the points proposed for our inquiry was the 
state of religious worship, with reference to the invo- 
cation of saints, at the time immediately preceding 
the reformation. Very far from entertaining a wish 
to fasten upon the Church of Rome now, what then 
deformed religion among us, in any department where 
that Church has practically reformed her services, 
I would most thankfully have found her ritual in 
a more purified state than it is. My more especial 
object in referring to this period is twofold : first, to 
show, that consistently with Catholic and primitive 
principles, the Catholic Christians of England ought 
not to have continued to participate in the worship 
which at that time prevailed in our country ; and, se- 
condly, by that example both to illustrate the great 
danger of allowing ourselves to countenance the very 
first stages of superstition, and also to impress upon our 
minds the duty of checking in its germ any the least 
deviation from the primitive principles of faith and 
worship; convinced that by the general tendency of 
human nature, one wrong step will, though imper- 
ceptibly, yet almost inevitably lead to another ; and that 
only whilst we adhere with uncompromising steadiness 

o 



194 STATE OF WORSHIP [PART II. 

to the Scripture as our foundation, and to the primitive 
Church, under God, as a guide, can we be saved from 
the danger of making shipwreck of our faith. 

On this branch of our subject I propose to do no 
more than to lay before my readers the witness borne 
to the state of religion in England at that time, by two 
works, which have been in an especial manner forced 
upon my notice. Many other testimonies of a similar 
tendency might readily be adduced; but these will 
probably appear sufficient for the purposes above men- 
tioned ; and to dwell longer than is necessary on this 
point would be neither pleasant nor profitable. 



SECTION I. 

The first book to which I shall refer is called The 
Hours of the most blessed Virgin Mary, according to 
the legitimate use of the Church of Salisbury. This 
book was printed in Paris in the year 152b*. The 
prayers in this volume relate chiefly to the Virgin : and 
I should, under other circumstances, have reserved all 
allusion to it for our separate inquiry into the faith and 
practice of the Church of Rome with regard to her. But 
its historical position and general character seemed to 
recommend our reference to it here. Without antici- 
pating, therefore, the facts or the arguments, which will 
hereafter be submitted to the reader's consideration on 
the worship of the Virgin, I refer to this work now 
solely as illustrative of the lamentable state of super- 
stition which three centuries ago overran our country. 

The volume abounds with forms of prayer to the 
Virgin, many of them prefaced by extraordinary notifi- 
cations of indulgences promised to those who duly utter 



CHAP. I.] AT THE REFORMATION. 195 

the prayers. These indulgences are granted by Popes 
and by Bishops ; some on their own mere motion, others 
at the request of influential persons. They guarantee 
remission of punishment for different spaces of time, 
varying from forty days to ninety thousand years ; they 
undertake to secure freedom from hell; they promise 
pardon for deadly sins, and for venial sins to the same 
person for the same act; they assure to those who 
comply with their directions a change of the pain of 
eternal damnation into the pain of purgatory, and the 
pain of purgatory into a free and full pardon. 

It may be said that the Church of Rome is not 
responsible for all these things. But we need not tarry 
here to discuss the question how far it was then com- 
petent for a church or nation to have any service-book 
or manual of devotion for the faithful, without first 
obtaining the papal sanction. For clear it is beyond all 
question, that such frightful corruptions as these, of 
which we are now to give instances, were spread 
throughout the land ; that such was the religion then 
imposed on the people of England ; and it was from 
such dreadful enormities, that our Reformation, to 
whatever secondary cause that reformation is to be 
attributed — by the providence of Almighty God rescued 
us. No one laments more than I do, the extremes into 
which many opponents of papal Rome have allowed 
themselves to run; but no one can feel a more anxi- 
ous desire than myself to preserve our Church and 
people from a return of such spiritual degradation and 
wretchedness ; and to keep far from us the most distant 
approaches of such lamentable and ensnaring super- 
stitions. In this feeling moreover I am assured that I am 
joined by many of the most respected and influential 
members of the Roman Catholic Church among us. 

o2 



196 STATE OF WORSHIP [PART II. 

Still what has been may be ; and it is the bounclen duty 
of all members of Christ's Catholic Church, to whatever 
branch of it they belong, to join in guarding his sanc- 
tuary against such enemies to the truth as it is in Him. 

At the same time it would not be honest and can- 
did in me, were I to abstain from urging those, who, 
with ourselves, deprecate these excesses, to carry their 
reflections further ; and determine whether the spirit of 
the Gospel does not require a total rejection, even in 
its less startling forms, of every departure from the 
principle of invoking God alone; and of looking for 
acceptance with Him solely to the mediation of his Son, 
without the intervention of any other merits. As we 
regard it, it is not a question of degree ; it is a question 
of principle : one degree may be less revolting to our 
sense of right than another, but it is not on that account 
justifiable. 

The following specimens, a few selected from an over- 
abundant supply, will justify the several particulars in 
the summary which I have above given : 

1. "The Right Reverend Father in God, Laurence \ 
Bishop of Assaven, hath granted forty days of pardon 
to all them that devoutly say this prayer in the worship 
of our blessed Lady, being penitent, and truly confessed 
of all their sins. Oratio, * Gaude Virgo, Mater Christi,' 
&c. Rejoice, Virgin, Mother of Christ. 

2. " To all them 2 that be in the state of grace, that 
daily say devoutly this prayer before our blessed Lady 
of Pity, she will show them her blessed visage, and warn 
them the day and the hour of death ; and in their last 

1 Fol. 35. This was Laurence Child, who, by papal provision, 
was made Bishop of St. Asaph, June 18, 1382. He is called also 
Penitentiary to the Pope. Le Neve, p. 21. Beatson, vol. i. 
p. 115. 2 Fol. 38. 



CHAP. I.] AT THE REFORMATION. 197 

end the angels of God shall yield their souls to heaven ; 
and ! he shall obtain five hundred years, and so many 
Lents of pardon, granted by five holy fathers, Popes of 
Rome. 

3. " This prayer 2 showed our Lady to a devout per- 
son, saying, that this golden prayer is the most sweetest 
and acceptablest to me : and in her appearing she had 
this salutation and prayer written with letters of gold 
in her breast, ' Ave Rosa sine spinis' — Hail Rose with- 
out thorns. 

4. " Our holy Father 3 , Sixtus the fourth, pope, hath 
granted to all them that devoutly say this prayer before 
the image of our Lady the sum of XI. M. [eleven thou- 
sand] years of pardon. ' Ave Sanctissima Maria, Mater 
Dei, Regina Coeli,' &c. Hail most holy Mary, Mother 
of God, Queen of Heaven. 

5. " Our holy Father 4 , Pope Sixtus, hath granted at 
the instance of the highmost and excellent Princess 
Elizabeth, late Queen of England, and wife to our sove- 
reign liege Lord, King Henry the Seventh, (God have 
mercy on her sweet soul, and on all Christian souls,) 
that every day in the morning, after three tollings of the 
Ave bell, say three times the whole salutation of our 
Lady Ave Maria gratia ; that is to say, at 6 the clock in 
the morning 3 Ave Maria, at 12 the clock at noon 3 
Ave M., and at 6 the clock at even, for every time so 
doinof is granted of the spiritual treasure of holy 
church 300 days of pardon totiens quotiens ; and also 
oar holy father, the Archbishop of Canterbury and 
York, with other nine Bishops of this realm, have 

1 The language in many of these passages is very imperfect ; but 
I have thought it right to copy them verbatim. 

2 Fol. 41. 3 Fol. 42. 4 Fol. 44. 



1 98 STATE OF WORSHIP [PART II. 

granted 3 times in the day 40 days of pardon to all 
them that be in the state of grace able to receive par- 
don : the which begun the 26th day of March, Anno 
MCCCCXCII. Anno Henrici VII. 1 * And the sum of 
the indulgence and pardon for every Ave Maria VIII 
hondred days an LX [860] totiens quotiens, this prayer 
shall be said at the tolling of the Ave Bell, ' Suscipe,' &c. 
Receive the word, O Virgin Mary, which was sent to 
thee from the Lord by an angel. Hail, Mary, full of 
grace : the Lord with thee, &c. Say this 3 times, &c. 

6. " This prayer 2 was showed to St. Bernard by the 
messenger of God, saying, that as gold is the most pre- 
cious of all other metals, so exceedeth this prayer all 
other prayers, and who that devoutly sayeth it shall have 
a singular reward of our blessed Lady, and her sweet Son 
Jesus. ' Ave,' &c. Hail, Mary, most humble handmaid 
of the Trinity, &c. Hail, Mary, most prompt Com- 
forter of the living and the dead. Be thou with me in 
all my tribulations and distresses with maternal pity, 
and at the hour of my death take my soul, and offer it 
to thy most beloved Son Jesus, with all them who have 
commended themselves to our prayers. 

7. "Our holy father 3 , the Pope Bonifacius, hath 
granted to all them that devoutly say this lamentable 
contemplation of our blessed Lady, standing under the 
Cross weeping, and having compassion with her sweet 
Son Jesus, 7 years of pardon and forty Lents, and also 
Pope John the 22 hath granted three hondred days of 
pardon. ' Stabat Mater dolorosa.' 

8. "To all them 4 that before this image of Pity de- 
voutly say 5 Pat. Nos., and 5 Aves, and a Credo, 
piteously beholding these arms of Christ's passion, are 

1 Henry VII. began to reign in 1485. 

2 Fol. 46. 3 Fol. 47. l Fol. 54. 



CHAP. I.] AT THE REFORMATION. 199 

granted XXXII.M.VII hondred, and LV (32755) years 
of pardon ; and Sixtus the 4th, Pope of Rome hath made 
the 4 and the 5 prayer, and hath doubled his afore- 
said pardon. 

9. " Our holy Father l the Pope John 22 hath granted 
to all them that devoutly say this prayer, after the ele- 
vation of our Lord Jesu Christ, 3000 days of pardon 
for deadly sins. 

10. " This prayer 2 was showed to Saint Augustine by 
revelation of the Holy Ghost, and who that devoutly say 
this prayer, or hear read, or beareth about them, shall 
not perish in fire or water, nother in battle or judgment, 
and he shall not die of sudden death, and no venom shall 
poison him that day, and what he asketh of God he shall 
obtain if it be to the salvation of his soul; and when 
thy soul shall depart from thy body it shall not enter 
hell." This prayer ends with three invocations of the 
Cross, thus : " O Cross of Christ f save us, O Cross of 
Christ f protect us, O Cross of Christ f defend us. In 
the name of the f Father, f Son, and Holy f Ghost. 
Amen." 

11. "Our holy Father 3 Pope Innocent III. hath 
granted to all them that say these III prayers follow- 
ing devoutly, remission of all their sins confessed and 
contrite. 

12. " These 3 prayers 4 be written in the Chapel of 
the Holy Cross, in Rome, otherwise called Sacellum 
Sanctse Crucis septem Romanorum ; who that devoutly 
say them shall obtain X.C.M. [ninety thousand] years 
of pardon for deadly sins granted of our holy Father, 
John 22, Pope of Rome. 

13. "Who that devoutly beholdeth 5 these arms of 

1 Fol. 58. 2 Fol. 62.' 3 Fol. 63. 

4 Fol. 66. 5 Fol. 68. 



200 STATE OF WORSHIP, &C. [PART II. 

our Lord Jesus Christ, shall obtain six thousand years 
of pardon of our holy Father Saint Peter, the first pope 
of Rome, and of XXX [thirty] other popes of the 
Church of Rome, successors after him ; and our holy 
Father, Pope John 22, hath granted unto all them very 
contrite and truly confessed, that say these devout 
prayers following in the commemoration of the bitter 
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, 3000 years of pardon 
for deadly sins, and other 3000 for venial sins." 

I will only add one more instance. The following 
announcement accompanies a prayer of St. Bernard : 
" Who that devoutly with a contrite heart daily say 
this orison, if he be that day in a state of eternal dam- 
nation, then this eternal pain shall be changed him in 
temporal pain of purgatory ; then if he hath deserved 
the pain of purgatory it shall be forgotten and forgiven 
through the infinite mercy of God." 

It is indeed very melancholy to reflect that our 
country has witnessed the time, when the bread of life 
had been taken from the children, and such husks as 
these substituted in its stead. Accredited ministers of 
the Roman Catholic Church have lately assured us that 
the pardons and indulgences granted now, relate only 
to the remission of the penances imposed by the Church 
in this life, and presume not to interfere with the pro- 
vince of the Most High in the rewards and punishments 
of the next. But, I repeat it, what has been in former 
days may be again; and whenever Christians depart 
from the doctrine and practice of prayer to God alone, 
through Christ alone, a door is opened to superstitions 
and abuses of every kind ; and we cannot too anxiously 
and too jealously guard and fence about, with all our 
power and skill, the fundamental principle, one God 
and one Mediator. 



CHAP. I.] SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET. 201 



SECTION II. 



SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF 
HIS MARTYRDOM, DEC. 29. 

The other instance by which I propose to illustrate 
the state of religion in England before the reformation, 
is the service of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Can- 
terbury, a canonized saint and martyr of the Church of 
Rome. The interest attaching to so remarkable a 
period in ecclesiastical history, and to an event so inti- 
mately interwoven with the former state of our native 
land, appears to justify the introduction of the entire 
service, rather than extracts from it, in this place. 
Whilst it bears throughout immediately on the subject 
of our present inquiry, it supplies us at the same time 
with the strong views entertained by the authors of the 
service, on points which gave rise to great and repeated 
discussion, not only in England, but in various parts 
also of continental Europe, with regard to the moral 
and spiritual merits or demerits of Becket, as a subject 
of the realm and a Christian minister. It is, moreover, 
only by becoming familiar in all their details with some 
such remains of past times, that we can form any ade- 
quate idea of the great and deplorable extent to which 
the legends had banished the reading and expounding 
of Holy Scriptures from our churches ; and also how 
much the praises of mortal man had encroached upon 
those hours of public worship, which should be devoted 
to meditations on our Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; 
to the exclusive praises of his holy name ; and to sup- 



202 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

plications to Him alone for blessings at his hand, and for 
his mercy through Christ. 

There is much obscurity in the few first paragraphs. 
The historical or biographical part begins at Lesson the 
First, and continues throughout, only interspersed with 
canticles in general referring to the incidents in the 
narrative preceding each. 



Let them without change of vestments and without 
tapers in their hands, proceed to the altar of St. Thomas 
the Martyr, chanting the requiem, the chanter begin- 
ning, 

Req, The grain lies buried beneath the straw ; 

The just man is slain by the spear of the wicked ; 

The guardian of the vine falls in the vineyard, 

The chieftain in the camp, the husbandman in 

the threshing-floor. 

Then the prose is said by all who choose, in surplices 

before the altar. 

" Let the Shepherd sound his trumpet of horn." 
Let the choir respond to the chant of the prose after 
every verse, upon the letter [super litteram]. 



1 The copies which I have chiefly consulted for the purposes of the 
present inquiry, are two large folio manuscripts, in good preserva- 
tion, No. 1512 and No. 2785 of the Harleian MSS. in the British 
Museum. The service commences about the 49th page, B. of No. 
2785. This MS. is considered to be of a date somewhere about 
1430. The first parts of the service are preserved also in a Breviary 
printed in Paris in 1556, with some variations and omissions. There 
are various other copies in the British Museum, as well printed as in 
manuscript. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 203 

That the vineyard of Christ might be free, 

Which he assumed under a robe of flesh, 

He liberated it by the purple cross. 

The adversary, the erring sheep, 

Becomes bloodstained by the slaughter of the 
shepherd. 

The marble pavements of Christ 

Are wetted, ruddy with sacred gore ; 

The martyr presented with the laurel of life, 

Like a grain cleansed from the straw, 

Is translated to the divine garners. 
But whilst the prose is being sung, let the priest in- 
cense the altar, and then the image of the blessed 
Thomas the Martyr ; and afterwards shall be said with 
an humble voice : Pray for us, Blessed Thomas. 

The Prayer K O God for whose Church the glori- 

1 This Collect is still preserved in the Roman ritual, and is offered 
on the anniversary of Becket's death. In a very ancient pontifical, 
preserved in the chapter-house of Bangor, and which belonged to Ani- 
anus, who was Bishop of that see [1268], among the " Proper Benedic- 
tions for the circuit of the year," are two relating to Thomas Becket ; 
one on the anniversary of his death, the other on the day of his trans- 
lation. The former is couched in these words: "O God, who hast 
not without reason mingled the birthday of the glorious high-priest, 
Thomas, with the joys of thy nativity, by the intervention of his 
merits" (ipsius meritis intervenientibus), "make these thy servants 
venerate thy majesty with the reverence of due honour. Amen. And 
as he, according to the rule of a good shepherd, gave his life for his 
sheep, so grant thou to thy faithful ones, to fear no tyrannical mad- 
ness to the prejudice of Catholic truth. Amen. We ask that they, by 
his example, for obedience to the holy laws, may learn to despise 
persons, and by suffering manfully to triumph over tyrannical 
madness. Amen." The latter runs thus : " May God, by whose 
pity the bodies of saints rest in the sabbath of peace, turn your 
hearts to the desire of the resurrection to come. Amen. And may 
he who orders us to bury with honour due the members of the 



204 SERVICE OF [PART IT. 

ous high-priest and martyr Thomas fell beneath the 
swords of the wicked, grant, we beseech thee, that all 
who implore his aid may obtain the salutary effect of 
their petition, through Christ. 

The shepherd slain in the midst of the flock, 

Purchased peace at the price of his blood. 

O joyous grief, in mournful gladness ! 

The flock breathes when the shepherd is dead ; 

The mother wailing, sings for joy in her son, 

Because he lives under the sword a conqueror. 

The solemnities of Thomas the Martyr are come. 

Let the Virgin Mother, the Church, rejoice ; 

Thomas being raised to the highest priesthood, 

Is suddenly changed into another man. 

A monk, under [the garb of?] a clerk, secretly 
clothed with haircloth, 

More strong than the flesh subdues the attempts 
of the flesh ; 

Whilst the tiller of the Lord's field pulls up the 
thistles, 

And drives away and banishes the foxes from the 
vineyard. 

The First Lesson. 

Dearest Brethren, celebrating now the birth-day of 
the martyr Thomas, because we have not power to re- 
count his whole life and conversation, let our brief dis- 
course run through the manner and cause of his passion. 
The blessed Thomas, therefore, as in the office of Chan- 
cellor, or Archdeacon, he proved incomparably strenuous 

saints whose death is precious, by the merits of the glorious martyr, 
Thomas, vouchsafe to raise you from the dust of vanity. Amen. 
Where at length by the power of his benediction ye may be clothed 
with doubled festive robes of body and soul. Amen." 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 205 

in the conduct of affairs, so after he had undertaken the 
office of pastor, he became devoted to God beyond 
man's estimation. For, when consecrated, he suddenly 
is changed into another man : he secretly put on the 
hair shirt, and wore also hair drawers down to the knee. 
And under the respectable appearance of the clerical 
garb, concealing the monk's dress, he entirely compelled 
the flesh to obey the spirit ; studying by the exercise of 
every virtue without intermission to please God. Know- 
ing, therefore, that he was placed a husbandman in the 
field of the Lord, a shepherd in the fold, he carefully 
discharged the ministry entrusted to him. The rights 
and dignities of the Church, which the public authority 
had usurped, he deemed it right to restore, and to recal 
to their proper state. Whence a grave question on the 
ecclesiastical law and the customs of the realm, having 
arisen between him and the king of the English, a 
council being convened, those customs were proposed 
which the king pertinaciously required to be confirmed 
by the signatures as well of the archbishop as of his 
suffragans. The archbishop with constancy refused, 
asserting that in them was manifest the subversion of 
the freedom of the Church. He was in consequence 
treated with immense insults, oppressed with severe 
losses, and provoked with innumerable injuries. At 
length, being threatened with death, (because the case 
of the Church had not yet become fully known, and 
the persecution seemed to be personal,) he determined 
that he ought to give place to malice. Being driven, 
therefore, into exile, he was honourably received by 
our lord the pope Alexander ' at Senon, and recom- 

1 Pope Alexander III. was at this time residing as a refugee at 
Sens, having been driven from Italy a- few years before by Frederick 
Barbarossa. 



206 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

mended with especial care to the monastery of Pon- 
tinea 1 . 

Malice, bent on the punishment of Thomas, 

Condemns to banishment the race of Thomas. 

The whole family goes forth together. 

No order, sex, age, or condition 

Here enjoys any privilege. 

Lesson the Second. 

Meanwhile in England all the revenues of the arch- 
bishop are confiscated, his estates are laid waste, his 
possessions are plundered, and by the invention of a new 
kind of punishment, the whole kin of Thomas is pro- 
scribed together. For all his friends or acquaintance, 
or whoever was connected with him, by whatever title, 
without distinction of state or fortune, dignity or rank, 
age or sex, were alike exiled. For as well the old and 
decrepit, as infants in the cradle and women lying in 
childbirth, were driven into banishment ; whilst as many 
as had reached the years of discretion were compelled 
to swear upon the holy [Gospels] 2 that immediately on 
crossing the sea they would present themselves to the 
Archbishop of Canterbury ; in order that being so often- 
times pierced even by the sword of sympathy, he would 
bend his strength of mind to the king's pleasure. But 
the man of God, putting his hand to deeds of fortitude, 
with constancy bore exile, reproaches, insults, the pro- 
scription of parents and friends, for the name of Christ ; 
he was never, by any injury, at all broken or changed. 
For so great was the firmness of this confessor of Christ, 
that he seemed to teach all his fellow exiles, that every 
soil is the brave man's country. 

1 Pontigny. 

2 Tactis sacrosanctis. It may mean reliques, or other sacred things. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET, 207 

Thomas put his hands to deeds of fortitude, 
He despised losses, he despised reproaches, 
No injury breaks down Thomas : 
The firmness of Thomas exclaimed to all, 
" Every soil is the brave man's country." 

Third Lesson. 

The king therefore hearing of his immoveable con- 
stancy, having directed commendatory letters by some 
abbots of the Cis tertian order to the General Chap- 
ter, caused him to be driven from Pontinea. But 
the blessed Thomas fearing that, by occasion of his 
right, injury would befal the saints, retired of his 
own accord. Yet before he set out from thence he 
was comforted by a divine revelation : a declaration 
being made to him from heaven, that he should return 
to his Church with glory, and by the palm of martyr- 
dom depart to the Lord. When he was disturbed and 
sent from his retreat at Pontinea, Louis, the most 
Christian king of the French, received him with the 
greatest honour, and supported him most courteously 
till peace was restored. But even he too was often, 
though in vain, urged not to show any grace of kindness 
towards a traitor to the king of England. The hand of 
fury proceeded further, and a cruelty dreadful for pious 
ears to hear. For whereas the Catholic Church prays 
even for heretics, and schismatics, and faithless Jews, 
it was forbidden that any one should assist him by the 
supplications of prayer. Exiled, then, for six con- 
tinuous years, afflicted with varied and unnumbered 
injuries, and like a living stone squared by various 
cuttings and pressures for the building of the heavenly 
edifice, the more he was thrust at that he might fall, 
the more firm and immoveable was he enabled to stand. 



208 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

For neither could gold so carefully tried be burned away, 
nor a house, founded on a firm rock, be torn down. 
Neither does he suffer the wolves to rage against the 
lambs, nor the vineyard to pass into a garden of herbs. 

The best of men, holy, and renowned is banished, 

Lest the dignity of the Church should yield to the 
unworthy. 

The estates of the exiled man are the spoil of the 
malignant, 

But when placed in the fire, the fire burns him not. 

Fourth Lesson. 

At length by the exertions, as well of the aforesaid 
pontiff as of the king of the French, many days were 
appointed for re-establishing peace : and because the 
servant of God would not accept of peace, unless with 
safety to the honour of God, and the character of the 
Church, they departed in discord from each other. At 
length the supreme Pontiff, pitying the desolation of 
the Anglican Church, with difficulty at the last extorted 
by threatening measures, that peace should be restored 
to the Church. The realms indeed rejoiced, that the 
King had been reconciled to the Archbishop, whilst 
some believed that the affair was carried on in good 
faith, and others formed different conjectures. Con- 
sequently in the seventh year of his exile the noble 
pastor returned into England, that he might either 
rescue the sheep of Christ from the jaws of the wolves, 
or sacrifice himself for the flock intrusted to his care. 
He is received by the clergy and the people with in- 
calculable joy ; all shedding tears, and saying, Blessed 
is he who cometh in the name of the Lord. But after 
a few days he was again afflicted by losses and miseries 
beyond measure and number. Whoever offered to him, 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 209 

or to any one connected with him, a cheerful counte- 
nance was reckoned a public enemy. In all these things 
his mind was unbroken ; but his hand was still stretched 
out for the liberation of the Church. For this he in- 
cessantly sighed ; for this he persevered in watchings, 
fastings, and prayers ; to obtain this he ardently desired 
to sacrifice himself. 

From the greatest joy of affairs, 

The greatest wailing is in the Church, 

For the absence of so great a patron. 

But when the miracles return, 

Joy to the people returns. 

The crowd of sick flock together, 

And obtain the grace of benefits. 

Fifth Lesson. 

Now on the fifth day after the birth-day of our Lord, 
four persons of the palace came to Canterbury, men 
indeed of high birth, but famous for their wicked deeds ; 
and having entered, they attack the archbishop with 
reproachful words, provoke him with insults, and at 
length assail him with threats. The man of God mo- 
destly answered, to every thing, whatever reason re- 
quired, adding that many injuries had been inflicted 
upon him and the Church of God, since the re-esta- 
blishment of peace, and there was no one to correct 
what was wrong; that he neither could nor would 
dissemble thereafter, so as not to exercise the duties 
of his function. The men, foolish in heart, were dis- 
turbed by this, and having loudly given utterance to 
their iniquity they forthwith went out. On their re- 
tiring, the prelate proceeded to the Church, to offer the 
evening praises to Christ. The mail-clad satellites of 
Satan followed him from behind with drawn swords, a 

p 



210 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

large band of armed men accompanying them. On 
the monks barring the entrance to the Church, the 
priest of God, destined soon to become a victim of 
Christ, running up re-opened the door to the enemy; 
" For," said he, " a Church must not be barricadoed 
like a castle." As they burst in, and some shouted 
with a voice of phrenzy, " Where is the traitor ?" others, 
" Where is the Archbishop ? " the fearless confessor of 
Christ went to meet them. When they pressed on to 
murder him, he said, " For myself I cheerfully meet 
death for the Church of God ; but on the part of God 
I charge you to do no hurt to any of mine" — imitating 
Christ in his passion, when he said, " If ye seek me, let 
these go their way " Then rush the ravening wolves 
on the pious shepherd, degenerate sons on their own 
father, cruel lictors on the victim of Christ, and with 
fatal swords cut off the consecrated crown of his head; 
and hurling down to the ground the Christ [the 
anointed] of the Lord, in savage manner, horrible to 
be said, scattered the brains with the blood over the 
pavement. 

Thus does the straw press down the grain of corn ; 

Thus is slain the guard of the vineyard in the vine- 
yard ; 

Thus the general in the camp, the shepherd in the 
fold, the husbandman in the threshing-floor. 

Thus the just, slain by the unjust, has changed his 
house of clay for a heavenly palace. 

Rachel, weeping, now cease thou to mourn 

That the flower of the world is bruised by the world. 

When the slain Thomas, is borne to his funeral, 

A new Abel succeeds to the old. 

The voice of blood, the voice of his scattered brains, 

Fills heaven with a marvellous cry. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 211 



Siwth Lesson. 

But the last words of the martyr, which from the 
confused clamour could scarcely be distinguished, ac- 
cording to the testimony of those who stood near, were 
these, — "To God, and the blessed Mary, and Saint 
Dionysius, and the holy patrons of this Church, I com- 
mend myself and the cause of the Church 1 ." More- 
over, in all the torments which this unvanquished 
champion of God endured, he sent forth no cry, he 
uttered no groan, he opposed neither his arm nor his 
garment to the man who struck him, but held his 
head, which he had bent towards the. swords, unmoved 
till the consummation came ; prostrated as if for prayer, 
he fell asleep in the Lord. The perpetrators of the 
crime, returning into the palace of the holy prelate, 
that they might make the passion of the servant more 
fully resemble the passion of his Lord, divided among 
them his garments, the gold and silver and precious 
vessels, choice horses, and whatever of value they could 
find, allotting what each should take. These things 
therefore the soldiers did. Who, without weeping, 
can relate the rest ? So great was the sorrow of all, 
so great the laments of each, that you would think 
the prophecy were a second time fulfilled, 'A voice 
is heard in Rama, lamentation and great mourning.' 
Nevertheless the divine mercy, when temptation was 
multiplied, made a way to escape; and by certain 
visions, giving as it were a prelude to the future mira- 
cles, [declared that] the martyr was thereafter to be 
glorified by wonders, that joy would return after sor- 

1 I have already suggested a comparison between this prayer and 
the commendatory prayer of the Martyr Polycarp, page 92. 

p 2 



212 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

row, and a crowd of sick would obtain the grace of 
benefits. 

O Christ Jesus \ by the wounds of thomas, 

Loosen the sins which bind us; 

Lest the enemy, the world, or the works of the flesh, 

Bear us captive to hell. 

By 2 thee, O Thomas 

Let the right hand of God embrace us. 

The satellites of Satan rushing into the temple 
Perpetrate an unexampled, unheard-of, crime. 
Thomas proceeds to meet their drawn swords : 
He yieldsnot to threats, to swords, nor even to death. 

Happy place ! Happy Church, 
In which the memory of Thomas lives ! 
Happy the land which gave the prelate ! 
Happy the land which supported him in exile ! 
Happy Father ! succour us miserable, 
That we may be happy, and joined with those 
above ! 

Seventh Lesson. 

Jesus said unto his disciples, I am the good shep- 
herd. The good shepherd layeth down his life for the 
sheep. 

THE HOMILY OF S. GREGORY, POPE. 

Ye have heard, most dear brethren, from the reading 
of the Gospel, your instruction ; ye have heard also 

1 Christe Jesu per Thomae vulnera, 
Quae nos ligant relaxa scelera 
Ne captivos ferant ad infera 
Hostis, mundus, vel carnis opera. 

2 Per te, Thoma, post laevse munera 
Amplexetur nos Dei dextera. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 213 

your danger. For behold ! he who is not from any gift 
happening to him, but who is essentially good, says, I 
am the good shepherd; and he adds the character of 
the same goodness, which we may imitate, saying, The 
good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep. He 
did what he taught ; he showed what he commanded. 
The good shepherd laid down his life for his sheep ; 
that in our sacrament he might change his body and 
blood, and satisfy, by the nourishment of his flesh, the 
sheep which he had redeemed. Here is shown to us 
the way, concerning the contempt of death, which we 
should follow; the character is placed before us to 
which we should conform. [In the first place l , we 
should of our pity sacrifice our external good for his 
sheep ; and at last, if it be necessary, give up our own 
life for the same sheep. From that smallest point we 
proceed to this last and greater. But since the soul 
by which we live is incomparably better than the 
earthly substance which we outwardly possess, who 
would not give for the sheep his substance, when he 
would give his life for them ? A nd there are some 
who, whilst they love their earthly substance more than 
the sheep, deservedly lose the name of shepherd : of 
whom it is immediately added, But the hireling who is 
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth 
the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. 
He is called not a shepherd, but a hireling, who feeds 
the Lord's sheep not for inward love, but with a view 
to temporal wages. He is a mercenary who seeks 
indeed the place of shepherd, but seeks not the gain 
of souls.] 

To Thomas all things yield and are obedient : 

Plagues, diseases, death, and devils, 
1 The sentences between brackets are not in MS. No. 1512. 



214 SERVICE OF [rART II. 

Fire, air, land, and seas. 

Thomas filled the world with glory. 

The world offers obeisance to Thomas'. 

Eighth Lesson. 

In good truth, the holy Thomas, the precious cham- 
pion of God, was to be worthily glorified. For if the 
cause, yea, forasmuch as the cause makes the martyr, 
did ever a title of holy martyrs exist more glorious ? 
Contending for the Church, in the Church he suffered ; 
in a holy place, at the holy time of the Lord's nativity, 
in the midst of his fellow-priests and the companies of 
the religious: since in the agony of the prelate all 
the circumstances seemed so to concur, as perpetually 
to illustrate the title of the sufferer, and reveal the 
wickedness of his persecutors, and stain their name 
with never-ending infamy. But so did the divine venge- 
ance rage against the persecutors of the martyr, that 
in a short time, being carried away from the midst, 
they nowhere appeared. And some, without confes- 
sion, or the viaticum, were suddenly snatched away; 
others tearing piecemeal their own fingers or tongues ; 
others pining with hunger, and corrupting in their 
whole body, and racked with unheard-of tortures before 
their death, and broken up by paralysis ; others bereft 
of their intellects ; others expiring with madness ; — left 
manifest proofs that they were suffering the penalty of 
unjust persecution and premeditated murder. Let, 
therefore, the Virgin Mother, the Church, rejoice that 
the new martyr has borne away the triumph over the 

1 Thomae cedunt et parent omnia : 
Pestes, morbi, mors, et daemonia, 
Ignis, aer, tellus, et maria. 
Thomas munclum replevit gloria. 
Thomas mundus praestat obsequia. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 215 

enemies. Let her rejoice that a new Zacharias has 
been for her freedom sacrificed in the temple. Let her 
rejoice that a new Abel's blood hath cried unto God 
for her against the men of blood. For the voice of his 
blood shed, the voice of his brain scattered by the 
swords of those deadly satellites, hath filled heaven at 
once and the world with its far-famed cry. 

Thomas shines with new miracles ; 

He adorns with sight those who had lost their 
eyes; 

He cleanses those who were stained with the spots 

of leprosy ; 

# * & & * * 

He looses those that were bound^ with the bonds 
of death. 

Ninth Lesson. 

For at the cry of this blood the earth was moved and 
trembled. Nay, moreover, the powers of the heavens 
were moved ; so that, as if for the avenging of inno- 
cent blood, nation rose against nation, and kingdom 
against kingdom ; nay, a kingdom was divided against 
itself, and terrors from heaven and great signs took 
place. Yet, from the first period of his martyrdom, 
the martyr began to shine forth with miracles, restoring 
sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the 
deaf, language to the dumb. Afterwards, cleansing 
the lepers, making the paralytic sound, healing the 
dropsy, and all kinds of incurable diseases ; restoring 
the dead to life ; in a wonderful manner commanding 
the devils and all the elements : he also put forth his 
hand to unwonted and unheard-of signs of his own 
power; for persons deprived of their eyes merited 
by his merits to obtain new members. But some 



216 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

who presumed to disparage his miracles, struck on 
a sudden, were compelled to publish them even un- 
willingly. At length, against all his enemies the 
martyr so far prevailed, that almost every day you 
might see that to be repeated in the servant which is 
read of the Only-begotten : " They who spoke evil of 
thee shall come unto thee, and adore the traces of thy 
feet." Now the celebrated champion and martyr of 
God, Thomas, suffered in the year from the incarna- 
tion of the Lord, according to Dionysius, 1171, on the 
fourth of the kalends of January, on the third day of the 
week, about the eleventh hour, that the birth-day of 
the Lord might be for labour, and his for rest ; to 
which rest the same our God and Lord Jesus Christ 
vouchsafe to bring us ; who with the Father and the 
Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth God, for ever and ever. 
Amen. 

1 O good JeSUS, BY THE MERITS OF THOMAS, 

Forgive us our debts ; 
Visit the house, the gate, the grave ; 
And raise us from the threefold death. 
What has been lost by act, in mind, or use, 
Restore with thy wonted pity. 

Pray for us, O blessed Thomas. 



N.B. This appears to be the end of the first service 
in honour of Thomas Becket 2 ; and at this point 



1 Jesu bone per Thomse raerita 
Nostra nobis dimitte debita. 
2 All the Lessons between this passage and " In Lauds," are 
wanting in MS. 1512. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 217 

another service seems to commence, with a kind of new 
heading, " In the commemoration of St. Thomas V 

The First Lesson. 

When Archbishop Theobald, of happy memory, in a 
good old age, slept with his fathers, Thomas, archdeacon 
of the Church of Canterbury, is solemnly chosen, in the 
name of the Holy Trinity, to be archbishop and pri- 
mate of all England, and afterwards is consecrated. 
Then pious minds entertained firm hope and confidence 
in the Lord 2 . 

Second Lesson. 

Therefore the chosen prelate of God being elected, 
and anointed with the sanctifying of the sacred oil, 
immediately obtained a most hallowed thing, and was 
filled with manifold grace of the Holy Spirit. For 
walking in newness of life, a new man, he was changed 
into another man, all things belonging to whom were 
changed for the better ; and with so great grace did he 
consecrate the commencement of his bishopric, that 
clothing himself with a monk's form secretly, he ful- 
filled the work and merit of a monk. 

1 Another Feast was kept in honour of his translation, on the 7th 
of July. 

2 There is much of obscurity in the next paragraph. Reference 
seems to be made to his twofold character of a regular and a secular 
clergyman, and to his improved state morally. The Latin is this : 
" Erat autem piis mentibus spes firma et fiducia in Domino, quod 
idem consecratus utriusque hominis, habitu mutato moribus me- 
lioratus praesideret. Probatissimum siquidem tenebatur sedem illam 
sedem sanctorum esse sanctam recipere aut facere, vel citius et facile 
indignum abicere, quod et in beato Thoma Martyre misericorditer 
impletum est." 



218 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

Third Lesson. 

But he, who after the example of the Baptist, with 
constancy had conceived in a perfect heart that the 
zeal of righteousness should be purified, studied also to 
imitate him in the garb of penitence. For casting off 
the fine linen which hitherto he had been accustomed 
to use, whilst the soft delicacies of kings pleased him, 
he was clothed on his naked body with a most rough 
hair shirt. He added, moreover, hair drawers, that he 
might the more effectually mortify the flesh, and make 
the spirit live. But these, as also the other exercises 
of his spiritual life, very few indeed being aware of 
it, he removed from the eyes and knowledge of men 
by superadding other garments, because he sought 
glory not from man, but from God. Even then the 
man of virtue entering upon the justifications of God, 
began to be more complete in abstinence, more fre- 
quent in watching, longer in prayer, more anxious in 
preaching. The pastoral office intrusted to him by 
God, he executed with so great diligence, as to suffer 
the rights neither of the clergy nor of the Church to be 
in any degree curtailed. 



There seems here also to be another commencement, 
for the next lesson is called the First. 

Lesson First. 

So large a grace of compunction was he wont to 
possess, between the secrets of prayer or the solemni- 
ties of masses, that with eyes trained to weeping he 
would be wholly dissolved in tears ; and in the office 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 219 

of the altar his appearance was as though he was 
witnessing the Lord's passion in the flesh. Knowing 
also that mercy softens justice, and that pity hath the 
promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to 
come, therefore towards the poor and the afflicted did 
he bear the bowels of mercy piteously, and was anxious 
to reach the poor by the blessings of his alms. 

Lesson Second. 

The more humble of those whom a character for 
religion raised high, he made his acquaintance and in- 
timates ; and that he might learn from them to hunger 
and thirst after righteousness, he enjoyed more fre- 
quently their secret conversation. Towards such ser- 
vants and soldiers of Christ this merciful man preferred 
to be liberal and abundant in food and raiment, he who 
determined in himself to be moderate and sparing. For 
what would he deny to Christ, who for Christ was 
about to shed his blood ? He who owed his coat or 
cloak to one who asked it, desired to add, moreover, 
his own flesh. For he knew that the man would never 
freely give his own flesh, who showed himself greedy 
of any temporal thing. 

Lesson Third. 

Hitherto the merciful Lord, who maketh poor and 
enricheth, bringeth low and lifteth up, wished to load 
his servant with riches, and exalt him with honours ; 
and afterwards he was pleased to try him with adver- 
sity. By trying whether he loved Him, He proved 
it the more certainly ; but He supplied grace more 
abundantly. For with the temptation He made a way 
to escape, that he might be able to bear it. Therefore, 
the envious enemy, considering that the new prelate 



220 SERVICE OF [PART II. 

and the new man was flourishing with so manifold 
a grace of virtues, devised to send a burning blight of 
temptation, which might suffocate the germ of his 
merits already put forth. Nor was there any delay. 
He who severs a man from his God, and one friend 
from his neighbour, sowed irreconcileable quarrels be- 
tween the king and the archbishop. 
Pray for us, O blessed Thomas. 

In Lauds. 

A grain falls and gives birth to an abundance of corn. 

The alabaster-box is broken, and the odour of the 
ointment is powerful. 

The whole world vies in love to the martyr, 

Whose wonderful signs strike all with astonish- 
ment. 

The water for Thomas five times changing colour, 

Once was turned into milk, four times into blood. 

At the shrine 1 of Thomas four times the light 
came down, 

And to the glory of the saint kindled the wax- 
tapers. 

2 DO THOU BY THE BLOOD OF THOMAS, WHICH HE 

SHED FOR THEE ; 

MAKE US, O CHRIST, ASCEND, 

Whither Thomas has ascended. 
Extend 3 succour to us, O Thomas, 
Guide those who stand, 

1 Ad Thomae memoriam. 

2 Tu per Thomee sanguinem quern pro te impendit, 
Fae nos, Christe, scandere, quo Thomas ascendit. 
3 Opem nobis, O Thoma, porrige, 
Rege stantes, jacentes erige, 
Mores, actus, et vitam corrige, 
Et in pacis nos viam dirige. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 221 

Raise up those who fall, 

Correct our morals, actions, and life ; 

And guide us into the way of peace. 

Final Anthem. 

1 Hail, O Thomas, the Rod of Justice ; 
The Brightness of the World ; 
The Strength of the Church ; 
The Love of the People ; 
The Delight of the Clergy. 
Hail, glorious Guardian of the Flock ; 
Save those who rejoice in thy glory. 

The end of the service of Thomas of Canterbury. 



Now for a few moments only let us meditate on 
this service. I have already referred to the lament- 
able practice of substituting biographical legends for the 
word of God. And what is the tendency of this service ? 
What impression was it likely to make, and to leave 
on minds of ordinary powers and instruction? Must 
it not, of necessity, tend to withdraw them from con- 
templating Christ, and to iix their thoughts on the 
powers, the glory, the exaltation, the merits of a fel- 
low-sinner ? It will be said, that they will look beyond 
the martyr, and trace the blessings, here enumerated, 
to Christ, as their primary cause, and will think of the 
merits of Thomas as efficacious only through the merits 
of their Saviour; that in their invocation of Thomas 
they will implore him only to pray for them. But can 
this be so ? Does not the ascription of miracles to him 

1 Salve, Thomas, Virga Justitiae, Mundi Jubar, Robur Ecclesise, 
Plebis Amor, Cleri Delicia. Salve Gregis Tutor egregie, Salva tuae 
gaudentes gloriae. 



222 SERVICE OF [part II. 

and to his power ; does not the very form of enume- 
rating those miracles tend much to exalt the servant 
to an equality with the Master? 

Whilst Thomas by being thus, in words at least, pre- 
sented to the people as working those miracles by his 
own power, (for there is throughout a lamentable 
absence of immediate ascription of glory to God,) is 
raised to an equality with Christ our Lord ; many 
passages in this service have the tendency also of with- 
drawing the minds of the worshippers from an implicit 
and exclusive dependence on the merits of Christ alone, 
and of tempting them to admit the merits of Thomas 
to share at least with Christ in the work of grace and 
salvation. Let us place some texts of Scripture and 
some passages of this service side by side. 

Scripture. Service of Thomas BecJcet. 

But after that the kindness and O Christ Jesus, by the wounds 

love of God towards man appear- of Thomas loosen the sins which 

ed, not by works of righteous- bind us. 

ness which we have done, but O blessed Jesus, by the me- 

according to his mercy he saved rits oe Thomas, forgive us our 

us. — Titus iii. 4, 5. debts, raise us from the threefold 

He who spared not his own death, and restore what has been 

Son, but gave him up for us all, lost with thy accustomed pity, 

how shall he not with him also Do thou, O Christ, by the blood 

freely give us all things? — Rom. of Thomas, which he shed for 

viii. 32. thee, make us to ascend whither 

The blood of Jesus Christ Thomas has ascended, 
cleanseth us from all sin. — 1 
John i. 7- 

One Mediator.— 1 Tim. ii. 5. 

Who also maketh intercession Holy Thomas, pray for us. 
for us. — Rom. viii. 34. 

He ever liveth to make inter- • 
cession for them. — Heb. vii. 25. 

And if this service thus seems to mingle the merits 
of Christ, the merits of his blood and of his death, with 



CHAP. I.J 



THOMAS BECKET. 



223 



the merits of a mortal man, the immediate address to 
that mortal as the giver of good things temporal and 
spiritual, very awfully trespasses on that high, exclusive, 
and incommunicable prerogative of the one Lord God 
Omnipotent, which his Spirit hath proclaimed solemnly 
and repeatedly, and which he has fenced around against 
all invasion with so many warnings and denunciations. 



Scripture. 

1. O thou that nearest prayer, 
unto thee shall all flesh come. — 
Ps. lxv. [vulg. lxiv.] 2. 

By prayer and supplication, 
with thanksgiving, let your re- 
quests be made known unto God. 
—Phil. iv. 6. 

2. Lord, be thou my helper. — 
Ps. xxx. [xxix.] 10. 

3. Thou shalt guide me by thy 
counsel. — Ps. lxxiii. [lxxii.] 24. 

He, The Holy Spirit, shall guide 
you into all truth. — John xvi. 13. 

4. The Lord upholdeth all that 
fall, and raiseth up all those that 
be bowed down. — Psalm cxlv. 
[cxliv.] 14. 

5. Create in me a clean heart, 
O God.— Ps. li. [1.] 10. 

6. The steps of a good man are 
ordered by the Lord. Though 
he fall, he shall not be utterly 
cast down, for the Lord uphold- 
eth him. — Ps. xxxvii. [xxxvi.] 
23. 

The day-spring from on high 
hath visited us, to guide our feet 
into the way of peace. — Luke i. 
78, 79. 



Service of Becket. 
1. For thy sake, O Thomas, 
let the right hand of God em- 
brace us. 



2. Send help to us, O Thomas ; 

3. Guide thou those who stand ; 

4. Raise up those who fall ; 



5. Correct our morals, actions, 
and life ; 

6. And guide us into the way 
of peace. 



And then again, in celebrating the praises of a mortal 



224 



SERVICE OF 



[PART II. 



man, recourse is had to language which can fitly be 
used only in our hymns and praises to the supreme 
Lord of our destinies, the eternal Creator, Redeemer, 
and Comforter, the only wise God our Saviour. 



Address to Thomas. 

1. Hail, Thomas, Rod of Jus- 
tice ! 



2. The brightness of the world. 



3. The strength of the Church. 



4. The love of the people : the 
delight of the Clergy. 



5. Hail, glorious Guardian of 
the Flock. Save those who re- 
joice in thy glory. 



Language of Scripture. 

1. There shall come a rod out 
of the stem of Jesse. Ye denied 
the Holy One, and the Just. — 
Isaiah xi. 1. Acts iii. 14. 

2. The brightness of his glory. 
I am the light of the world. — 
Heb. i. 3. John viii. 12. 

3. I can do all things through 
Christ, that strengtheneth me. 
Christ loved the Church, and 
gave himself for it. — Phil. iv. 13. 
Eph. v. 25. 

4. Grace be with all them that 
love our Lord Jesus Christ in sin- 
cerity. Delight thyself in the Lord. 
— Eph. vi. 24. Ps. xxxvii. 4. 

5. Our Lord Jesus, that great 
Shepherd of the sheep. Give ear, 
O Shepherd of Israel ; come and 
save us. He that glorieth, let him 
glory in the Lord. — Heb. xiii. 20. 
Psalm lxxx. [lxxix.] 1. 1 Cor. 
i. 31. 



Can that worship become the disciples of the Gospel 
and the Cross, which addresses such prayers and such 
praises to the spirit of a mortal man ? Every prayer, 
and every form of praise here used in honour of Thomas 
Becket, it would well become Christians to offer to the 
Giver of all good, trusting solely and exclusively to the 
mediation of Christ Jesus our Lord for acceptance ; and 
pleading only the merits of his most precious blood. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 225 

And yet I am bound to confess, that in principle, in 
spirit, and in fact, I can find no substantial difference 
between this service of Thomas of Canterbury, and the 
service which all in communion with the Church of Rome 
are under an obligation to use even at the present hour. 

This point remains next for our inquiry, and we will 
draw from the well-head. I would, however, first sug- 
gest the application of a general test for ascertaining 
the real bona-fide nature of these prayers and praises. 
The test I would apply is, to try with the change only 
of the name, substituting the holiest name ever named 
in heaven or in earth for the name of Thomas of Can- 
terbury — whether these prayers and praises should not 
be offered to the Supreme Being alone through the 
atoning merits of his Blessed Son ; whether they are 
not exclusively appropriate to Him. 

m _ 4 , , all things bow and are obedient, 
To God Almighty J s 

Plagues, diseases, death, and devils, 

Fire, air. land, and sea. 

fills the world with dory. 
The Almighty J 8 J 

The world offers obeisance to < k , 

LAlmighty God. 

The Martyr Thomas L . .. 

o, T ™ began to shine 

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ J 

forthwith miracles 1 ; restoring sight to the blind 2 ; 

walking to the lame; hearing to the deaf; speech 

to the dumb; cleansing to the lepers 3 ; making the 

paralytic sound 4 ; healing the dropsy 5 ; and all 

kinds of incurable diseases 6 ; restoring the dead to 

1 John ii. 11. 2 Luke vii. 21. 3 Matt. xi. 5. 

4 Matt. iv. 24. 5 Luke xiv. 4. 6 Luke iv. 40. 

Q 



226 SERVICE OF [part II. 

life l ; in a wonderful manner commanding the 
devils 2 , and all the elements 3 . He put forth his 
hand to unwonted and unheard-of signs of his own 
power 4 . 

Do thou, O Lord, by the blood of _ Ll ~ cause us 
J LChrist J 

to ascend whither \ ^ has ascended. 

I Christ J 

_ ^ ' >send help to us. Guide those who stand ; 

O God, J 

raise up those who fall ; correct our morals, 

actions, and life ; and guide us into the way of 

peace. 

Hail,"! ' ' > Rod of Justice, the Brightness of the 

L Jesus ! J 

world, the Strength of the Church, the Love of 

the people, the Delight of the Clergy. Hail, 

Glorious Guardian of the flock ! Save Thou those 

who delight in Thy glory. 



We shall apply this same test to many of the collects 
and prayers used, and of necessity to be used, because 
they are authorized and appointed, even at the present 
day, in the ministrations of the Church of Rome. The 
impiety in many of those instances is not couched in 
such startling language ; but it is not the less real. 
God forbid that we should charge our fellow-creatures 
with idolatry, who declare that they offer divine wor- 
ship to the Supreme Being only ; or that we should 
pronounce any professed Christian to have cast off his 

1 Luke viii. 43. 55. 2 Matt. viii. 16. 

3 Luke viii. 25. 4 Mark ii. 12. John ix. 30. 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 227 

dependence on the merits of Christ alone, who assures 
us that he looks for mercy only through those merits. 
But I know and feel, that according to the standard of 
Christian truth, and of the pure worship of Almighty 
God, which the Scriptures and primitive antiquity 
compel me to adopt, I should stain my own soul with 
the guilt of idolatry, and with the sin of relying on 
other merits than Christ's, were I myself to offer those 
prayers. 

That this service excited much disgust among the 
early reformers, we learn from various writers ! . On 
the merits of the struggle between Becket and his 
king ; on the question of Becket's moral and religious 
worth, (a question long and often discussed among the 
exercises of the masters of Paris in the full assembly 
of the Sorbonne 2 ,) or on the motives which influenced 
Henry the Eighth, I intend not to say one word : those 
points belong not to our present inquiry. It may not, 
however, be thought irrelevant here to quote a passage 

1 See Mornay ' De la Messe,' Saumur, 1604. p. 826. Becon, in 
his " New Year's Gift," London, 1564, p. 183, thus speaks : " What 
saint at any time thought himself so pure, immaculate, and without 
all spot of sin, that he durst presume to die for us, and to avouch his 
death to be an oblation and sacrifice for our lives to God the Father, 
except peradventure we will admit for good payment these and such 
like blasphemies, which were wont full solemnly to be sung in the 
temples unto the great ignominy of the glorious name of God, and 
the dishonour of Christ's most precious blood." Then quoting the 
lines from the service of Thomas Becket, on which we have above 
commented, he adds, " I will let pass many more which are easy to 
be searched and found out." Becon preached and wrote in the 
reign of Henry VIII. and was then persecuted for his religion, as he 
was afterwards in the reign of Mary. 

2 We are told that forty-eight years after his death, the masters of 
Paris disputed whether Thomas was a condemned sinner, or admitted 
into heaven. 

Q 2 



228 SERVICE OF [part II. 

from the ordinance of this latter monarch for erasing 
Becket's service out of the books, and his name from 
the calendar of the saints. 

In Henry the Eighth's proclamation, dated West- 
minster, 16th November, in the thirtieth year of his 
reign, printed by Bertholet, is the following very curious 
passage : — 

" Item, for as moche as it appereth now clerely, that 
Thomas Becket, sometyme Archbyshop of Canterburie, 
stubburnly to withstand the holsome lawes establyshed 
agaynste the enormities of the clergie, by the kynges 
highness mooste noble progenitour, kynge Henry the 
Seconde, for the common welthe, reste, and tranquillitie 
of this realme, of his frowarde mynde fledde the realme 
into Fraunce, and to the bishop of Rome, mayntenour 
of those (enormities, to procure the abrogation of the 
sayd lawes, whereby arose moch trouble in this said 
realme, and that his dethe, which they untruely called 
martyrdome, happened upon a reskewe by him made, 
and that, as it is written, he gave opprobrious wordes 
to the gentyllmen, whiche than counsayled hym to 
leave his stubbernesse, and to avoyde the commocion 
of the people, rysen up for that rescue. And he not 
only callyd the one of them bawde, but also toke Tracy 
by the bosome, and violently shoke and plucked hym 
in suche maner, that he had almoste overthrowen hym 
to the pavement of the Churche ; so that upon this fray 
one of their company, perceivynge the same, strake 
hym, and so in the thronge Becket was slayne. And 
further that his canonization was made onely by the 
bysshop of Rome, bycause he had ben a champion of 
maynteyne his usurped auctoritie, and a bearer of the 
iniquitie of the clergie, for these and for other great 
and urgent causes, longe to recyte, the Kynge's 



CHAP. I.] THOMAS BECKET. 229 

Maiestie, by the advyse of his counsayle, hath thought 
expedient to declare to his lovynge subjectes, that not- 
withstandynge the sayde canonization, there appereth 
nothynge in his lyfe and exteriour conversation, wherby 
he shuld be callyd a sainct, but rather estemed to have 
ben a rebell and traytour to his prynce. Therefore his 
Grace strayghtly chargeth and commandeth that from 
henseforth the sayde Thomas Becket shall not be es- 
temed, named, reputed, nor called a sayncte, but 
bysshop Becket; and that his ymages and pictures, 
through the hole realme, shall be putte downe, and 
avoyded out of all churches, cbapelles, and other places; 
and that from henseforthe, the dayes used to be fes- 
tivall in his name shall not be observed, nor the service, 
office, antiphoners, colletes, and prayers, in his name 
redde, but rased and put out of all the bokes V 

1 In the Roman Breviary, adapted to England, several biographical 
lessons are appointed for the Anniversary of "St. Thomas, bishop 
and martyr," interspersed with canticles. In one of these we read, 
" This is truly a martyr, who, for the name of Christ, shed blood ; 
who feared not the threats of judges, nor sought the glory of earthlj 
dignity. But he reached the heavenly kingdom." — Norwich, 1830. 
Hiem. p. 251. 



PART II.— CHAPTER II. 



COUNCIL OF TRENT. 

In the process of ascertaining the real state of doctrine 
and practice in the worship of the Church of Rome at 
the present day, we must first gain as clear and accurate 
a knowledge of the decree of the Council of Trent, as 
its words will enable us to form. Into the character 
of that Council, and of those who constituted it, our 
present investigation does not lead us to inquire. It 
is now, I believe, generally understood, that its decrees 
are binding on all who profess allegiance to the Sove- 
reign Roman Pontiff; and that the man would be 
considered to have renounced the Roman Catholic 
Communion, who should professedly withhold his 
assent from the doctrines there promulgated as vital, 
or against the oppugners of which the Council itself 
pronounced an anathema. 

Ecclesiastical writers ' assure us, that the wording of 
the decrees of that Council was in many cases on pur- 
pose framed ambiguously and vaguely. The latitude, 
however, of the expressions employed, does not in itself 

1 See Mosheim, xvi. Cent. c. i. vol. iv. p. 196. London, 1811. 



CHAP. II.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 231 

of necessity imply any of those sinister and unworthy 
motives to which it has been usual with many writers 
to attribute it. In charity, and without any improbable 
assumption, it may be referred to an honest and laud- 
able desire of making the terms of communion as wide 
as might be, with a view of comprehending within 
what was regarded the pale of the Catholic Church, 
the greatest number of those who professed and called 
themselves Christians. Be this as it may, the vague- 
ness and uncertainty of the terms employed, compel us 
in many instances to have recourse to the actual prac- 
tice of the Church of Rome, as the best interpreter of 
doubtful expressions in the articles of that Council. 
The decree which bears on the subject of this volume 
is drawn up in the following words : — 



SESSION XXV. 



" On the invocation, veneration, and reliques of saints, 
and of sacred images. 
" The Holy Council commands all bishops and others 
bearing the office and care of instruction, that accord- 
ing to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
received from the primitive times of the Christian 
religion, and the consent of holy fathers, and decrees 
of sacred councils, they in the first place should in- 
struct the faithful concerning the intercession and 
invocation of saints, the honour of reliques, and the 
lawful use of images, teaching them, that the saints 
reigning together with Christ, offer their own 



The Latin, which will be found in the Appendix, is a transcript 
from a printed copy of the Acts of the Council of Trent, preserved in 
the British Museum, to which are annexed the autograph signatures 
of the secretaries (notarii), and their seals. 



232 COUNCIL OF TRENT. [PART II. 

prayers for men to God: that it is good and profit- 
able suppliantly to invoke them : and to fly to their 
prayers, help, and assistance, for obtaining benefits 
from God, by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is 
our only Redeemer and Saviour. But that those who 
deny that the saints, enjoying everlasting happiness in 
heaven, are to be invoked ; or who assert either that 
they do not pray for us ; or that the invocation of them 
to pray for us even as individuals is idolatry, or is 
repugnant to the word of God, and is opposed to the 
honour of the one Mediator of God and man, Jesus 
Christ ; or that it is folly, by voice or mentally, to sup- 
plicate those who reign in heaven, hold impious senti- 
ments. 

"That the bodies also of the holy martyrs and others 
living with Christ, which were living members of Christ, 
and a temple of the Holy Ghost to be raised by Him to 
eternal life, and to be glorified, are to be worshipped by 
the faithful ; by means of which many benefits are con- 
ferred on men by God ; so that those who affirm that 
worship and honour are not due to the reliques of the 
saints, or that they and other sacred monuments are un- 
profitably honoured by the faithful ; and that the shrines 
of the saints are frequented in. vain for the purpose of 
obtaining their succour, are altogether to be condemned, 
as the Church has long ago condemned them, and now 
also condemns them." 

An examination of this decree, in comparison with 
the form and language of other decrees of the same 
Council, forces the remark upon us, That the Council 
does not assert that the practice of invoking saints has 
any foundation in Holy Scripture. The absence of all 
such declaration is the more striking and important, 
because in the very decree immediately preceding this, 



CHAP. II.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 233 

which establishes Purgatory as a doctrine of the 
Church of Rome, the Council declares that doctrine 
to be drawn from the Holy Scriptures. In the pre- 
sent instance the Council proceeds no further than to 
charge with impiety those who maintain the invocation 
of saints to be contrary to the word of God. Many a 
doctrine or practice, not found in Scripture, may never- 
theless be not contrary to the word of God; but here 
the Council abstains from affirming any thing what- 
ever as to the scriptural origin of the doctrine and 
practice which it authoritatively enforces. In this 
respect the framers of the decree acted with far more 
caution and wisdom than they had shown in wording 
the decree on Purgatory; and with far more caution 
and wisdom too than they exercised in this decree, 
when they affirmed that the doctrine of the invocation 
of saints was to be taught the people according to the 
usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received 
from the primitive times of the Christian religion, and 
the consent of the holy fathers. I have good hope that 
these pages have already proved beyond gainsaying, 
that the invocation of saints is a manifest departure 
from the usage of the Primitive Church, and contrary 
to the testimony of " the holy fathers." However, the 
fact of the Council not having professed to trace the 
doctrine, or its promulgation, to any authority of Holy 
Scripture, is of very serious import, and deserves to be 
well weighed in all its bearings. 

With regard to the condemnatory clauses of this 
decree, I would for myself observe, that I should 
never have engaged in preparing this volume, had I 
not believed, "that it was neither good nor profitable 
to invoke the saints, or to fly to their prayers, their 
assistance, and succour." I am bound, with this decree 



234 COUNCIL OF TRENT. [PART II. 

before me, to pronounce, that it is a vain thing to offer 
supplications, either by the voice or in the mind, to the 
saints, even if they be reigning in heaven ; and that it 
is also in vain for Christians to frequent the shrines of 
the saints for the purpose of obtaining their succour. 

I am, moreover, under a deep conviction, that the 
invocation of them is both at variance with the word 
of God, and contrary to the honour of the one Mediator 
between God and man, Jesus Christ. 

On this last point, indeed, I am aware of an anxious 
desire prevailing on the part of many Roman Catholics, 
to establish a distinction between a mediation of Re- 
demption, and a mediation of Intercession: and thus 
by limiting the mediation of the saints and angels to 
intercession, and reserving the mediation of redemption 
to Christ only, to avoid the setting up of another to 
share the office of Mediator with Him, who is so 
solemnly declared in Scripture to be the one Mediator 
between God and man. But this distinction has no 
foundation in the revealed will of God ; on the con- 
trary, it is directly at variance with the words and with 
the spirit of many portions of the sacred volume. There 
we find the two offices of redemption and mediation 
joined together in Christ. " If any man sin, we have 
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righte- 
ous, and He is the propitiation for our sins ] ." In the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, the same Saviour who is 
declared " by his own blood to have obtained eternal 
redemption," is announced also as the Mediator of 
Intercession. " Wherefore he is able to save them to 
the uttermost who come unto God through him, seeing 
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." The 

1 1 John ii. 1, 2. Heb; ix. 12. vii. 25. 



CHAP. II.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 235 

redemption wrought by Christ, and the intercession still 
made in our behalf by Christ, are both equally declared 
to us by the most sure warrant of Holy Scripture ; of 
any other intercession by saints in glory, by angels, or 
Virgin, to be sought by our suppliant invocations to 
them, the covenant of God speaks not. 

It may be observed, that the enactment of this de- 
cree by the Council of Trent, has been chiefly lamented 
by some persons on the ground of its presenting the 
most formidable barrier against any reconciliation be- 
tween the Church of Rome, and those who hold the 
unlawfulness of the invocation of saints. Indeed per- 
sons of erudition, judgment, piety, and charity, in com- 
munion with Rome, have not been wanting to express 
openly their regret, that decrees so positive, peremptory, 
and exclusive, should have been adopted. They would 
have been better satisfied with the terms of communion 
in the Church to which they still adhered, had indivi- 
duals been left to their own responsibility on questions 
of disputable origin and doubtful antiquity, involving 
rather the subtilty of metaphysical disquisitions, than 
agreeable to the simplicity of Gospel truth, and essen- 
tial Christian doctrine. On this point I would content 
myself with quoting the sentiments of a Roman Catholic 
author. Many of the facts alleged in his interesting 
comments deserve the patient consideration of every 
Christian. Here (observes the commentator on Paoli 
Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent 1 ) the Council 
makes it a duty to pray to saints, though the ancient 
Church never regarded it as necessary. The practice 
cannot be proved to be introduced into public worship 

1 Histoire du Cone, de Trent, par Fra. Paoli Sarpi, traduit par 
Pierre Francois de Courayer. Amsterdam, note 31. 1751. vol. iii. 
p. 182. 



236 COUNCIL OF TRENT. [PART II. 

before the sixth century ; and it is certain, that in the 
ancient liturgies and sacramentaries no direct invoca- 
tion is found. Even in our modern missals, being 
those of our ecclesiastical books in which the ancient 
form has been longest retained, scarcely is there a 
collect [those he means in which mention is made of 
the saints] where the address is not offered directly to 
God, imploring Him to hear the prayers of the saints for 
us ; and this is the ancient form of invocation. It is 
true, that in the Breviaries and other ecclesiastical 
books, direct prayers to the saints have been subse- 
quently introduced, as in litanies, hymns, and even 
some collects. But the usage is more modern, and 
cannot be evidence for ancient tradition. For this 
[ancient tradition] only some invocations addressed 
to saints in public harangues are alleged, but which 
ought to be regarded as figures of rhetoric, apostrophes, 
rather than real invocations ; though at the same time 
some fathers laid the foundation for such a practice by 
asserting that one could address himself to the saints, 
and hope for succour from them. 

We have already alluded to the very great latitude 
of interpretation which the words of this Council admit. 
The expressions indeed are most remarkably elastic; 
capable of being expanded widely enough to justify 
those of the Church of Rome who allow themselves in 
the practice of asking for aid and assistance, temporal 
and spiritual, to be expected from the saints them- 
selves ; and at the same time, the words of the decree 
admit of being so far contracted as not in appearance 
palpably to contradict those who allege, that the Church 
of Rome never addresses a saint with any other petition, 
than purely and simply that the saint would by prayer 
intercede for the worshippers. The words "suppliantly 



CHAP. II.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 237 

to invoke them," and " to fly to their prayers, help, and 
succour," are sufficiently comprehensive to cover all 
kinds of prayer for all kinds of benefits, whilst " the 
invocation of them to pray for us even individually," 
will countenance those who would restrict the faithful 
to an entreaty for their prayers only. 

Whatever may be the advantage of this latitude of 
interpretation, in one point of view it must be a sub- 
ject of regret. Complaints had long been made in 
Christendom, that other prayers were offered to the 
saints, besides those which petitioned only for their 
intercession ; and if the Council of Trent had intended 
it to be a rule of universal application^ that in whatever 
words the invocations of the saints might be couched, 
they should be taken to mean only requests for their 
prayers, it may be lamented, that no declaration to 
that effect was given. 

The manner in which writers of the Church of Rome 
have attempted to reconcile the prayers actually offered 
in her ritual, with the principle of invoking the saints 
only for their prayers, is indeed most unsatisfactory. 
Whilst to some minds the expedient to which those 
writers have had recourse carries with it the stamp of 
mental reservation, and spiritual subterfuge, and moral 
obliquity; others under the influence of the purest 
charity will regret in it the absence of that simplicity, 
and direct openness in word and deed, which we regard 
as characteristic of the religion of the Gospel ; and will 
deprecate its adoption as tending, in many cases inevi- 
tably, to become a most dangerous snare to the con- 
science. I will here refer only to the profession of that 
principle as made by Bellarmin. Subsequent writers 
seem to have adopted his sentiments, and to have ex- 
pressed themselves very much in his words. 



238 COUNCIL OF TRENT. [PART II. 

Bellarmin unreservedly asserts that Christians are to 
invoke the saints solely and exclusively for their prayers, 
and not for any benefits as from the saints themselves. 
But then he seems to paralyse that declaration by this 
refinement : " It must nevertheless be observed that 
we have not to do with words, but with the meaning 
of words ; for as far as concerns the words, it is lawful 
to say, ' Saint Peter, have mercy on me ! Save me ! 
Open to me the entrance of heaven P So also, ' Give 
to me health of body, Give me patience, Give me forti- 
tude !' Whilst only we understand ; Save me, and have 
mercy upon me by praying for me : Give me this and 
that, by thy prayers and MERITS.' For thus Gregory 
of Nazianzen, in his Oratio in Cyprianum ; and the 
Universal Church, when in the hymn to the Virgin 
she says, 

Mary, Mother of Grace, 

Mother of Mercy, 

Do thou protect us from the enemy, 

And take us in the hour of death. 
" And in that of the Apostles, 

' To whose command is subject' 

The health and weakness of all : 

Heal us who are morally diseased ; 

Restore us to virtue. 
" And as the Apostle says of himself ' that I might 
save some 7 and ' that he might save all V not as God, 
but by prayer and counsel." 

I wish not to enter upon the question how far this 
distinction is consistent with that openness and straight- 
forward undisguised dealing which is alone allowable 
when we are contending for the truth ; nor how far the 

1 Rom. xi. 2 1 Cor. ix. 



CHAP. II.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 239 

charge of moral obliquity and double dealing, often 
brought against it, can be satisfactorily met. But sup- 
pose for a moment that we grant (what is not the 
case) that in the metaphysical disquisitions of the expe- 
rienced casuist such a distinction might be maintained, 
how can we expect it to be recognized, and felt, and 
acted upon by the large body of Christians ? Abstract- 
edly considered, such an interpretation in a religious 
act of daily recurrence by the mass of unlearned be- 
lievers would, I conceive, appear to reflecting minds 
most improbable, if not utterly impossible. And as 
to its actual bona-fide result in practice, a very brief 
sojourn in countries where the religion of Rome is 
dominant, will suffice to convince us, that such subtil- 
ties of the casuist are neither received nor understood 
by the great body of worshippers ; and that the large 
majority of them, when they pray to an individual saint 
to deliver them from any evil, or to put them in pos- 
session of some good, do in very deed look to the saint 
himself for the fulfilment of their wishes. It is a snare 
to the conscience only too evidently successful. 

And I regret to add, that in the errors into which 
such language of their prayers may unhappily betray 
them, they cannot be otherwise than confirmed as well 
by the recorded sentiments of men in past years, whom 
they have been taught to reverence, as by the senti- 
ments which are circulated through the world now, 
even by what they are accustomed to regard as the 
highest authority on earth '. 

To this point, however, we must repeatedly revert 



1 See in subsequent parts of this work the references to Bonaven- 
tura, Bernardin Sen., Bernardin de Bust., &c. ; and also the ency- 
clical letter of the present (A.D. 1840) reigning pontiff. 



240 COUNCIL OF TRENT. [PART II. 

hereafter ; at present, I will only add one further con- 
sideration. If, as we are now repeatedly told, the 
utmost sought by the invocation of saints is that they 
would intercede for the supplicants ; that no more is 
meant than we of the Anglican Church mean when we 
earnestly entreat our fellow-Christians on earth to pray 
for us, — why should not the prayers to the saints be 
confined exclusively to that form of words which would 
convey the meaning intended ? why should other forms 
of supplicating them be adopted, whose obvious and 
direct meaning implies a different thing ? If we re- 
quest a Christian friend to pray for us, that we may be 
strengthened and supported under a trial and struggle 
in our spiritual warfare, we do not say, " Friend, 
strengthen me; Friend, support me." That entreaty 
would imply our desire to be, that he would visit us 
himself, and comfort and strengthen us by his own 
kind words and cheering offices of consolation and 
encouragement. To convey our meaning, our words 
would be, " Pray for me ; remember me in your sup- 
plications to the throne of grace. Implore God, of his 
mercy, to give me the strength and comfort of his Holy 
Spirit." If nothing more is ever intended to be con- 
veyed, than a similar request for their prayers, when 
the saints are " suppliantly invoked," in a case of such 
delicacy, and where there is so much danger of words 
misleading, why have other expressions of every variety 
been employed in the Roman Liturgies, as well as in 
the devotions of individuals, which in words appeal to 
the saints, not for their prayers, but for their own imme- 
diate exertion in our behalf, their assistance, succour, 
defence, and comfort, — " Protect us from our enemies 
— Heal the diseases of our minds — Release us from 
our sin — Receive us at the hour of death ? " 



CHAP. II.] COUNCIL OF TRENT. 241 

• In the present work, however, were it not for the 
example and warning set us by this still greater de- 
parture from Scripture and the primitive Church, we 
need not have dwelt on this immediate point ; because 
we maintain that any invocation of saint or angel, even 
if it were confined to a petitioning for their prayers and 
intercessions, is contrary both to God's word and to the 
faith and practice of the primitive, Catholic, and Apo- 
stolic Church. We now proceed to the next portion 
of our proposed inquiry, — the present state of Roman 
Catholic worship, with respect to the invocation of 
saints and angels. 



R 



PART IT.— CHAPTER III. 



SECTION I. 

PRESENT SERVICE IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 

In submitting to the reader's consideration the actual 
state of Roman Catholic worship at the present hour, I 
disclaim all desire to fasten upon the Church of Rome 
any of the follies and extravagancies of individual super- 
stition. Probably many English Roman Catholics have 
been themselves shocked and scandalized by the scenes 
which their own eyes have witnessed in various parts of 
continental Europe. It would be no less unfair in us to 
represent the excesses of superstition there forced on 
our notice as the genuine legitimate fruits of the 
religion of Rome, than it would be in Roman Catholics 
to affiliate on the Catholics of the Anglican Church the 
wild theories and revolting tenets of all who assume the 
name of opponents to Rome. Well indeed does it 
become us of both Churches to watch jealously and 
adversely as against ourselves the errors into which our 
doctrines, if not preserved and guarded in their purity 
and simplicity, might have a tendency to seduce the 
unwary. And whilst I am fully alive to the necessity 
of us Anglican Catholics prescribing to ourselves a 



CHAP. III.] PRESENT SERVICE, &C. 243 

practical application of the same rule in various points 
of faith and discipline, I would with all delicacy and 
respect invite Roman Catholics to do likewise. Espe- 
cially would I entreat them to reflect with more than 
ordinary scrutiny and solicitude on the vast evils into 
which the practice of praying to saints and angels, and 
of pleading their merits at the throne of grace, has 
a tendency to betray those who are unenlightened and 
off their guard ; and unless my eyes and my ears and 
my powers of discernment have altogether often de- 
ceived and failed me, I must add, actually betrays thou- 
sands. Often when I have witnessed abroad multitudes 
of pilgrims prostrate before an image of the Virgin, 
their arms extended, their eyes fixed on her counte- 
nance, their words in their native language pouring 
forth her praises and imploring her aid, I have asked 
myself, If this be not religious worship, what is ? If I 
could transport myself into the midst of pagans in some 
distant part of the world at the present day; or could 
I have mingled with the crowd of worshippers sur- 
rounding the image of Minerva in Athens, or of Diana 
in Ephesus, when the servants of the only God called 
their fellow-creatures from such vanities, should I have 
seen or heard more unequivocal proofs that the wor- 
shippers were addressing their prayers to the idols as 
representations of their deities ? Would any difference 
have appeared in their external worship? When the 
Ephesians worshipped their "great goddess Diana and 
the image which fell down from Jupiter," could their 
attitude, their eyes, or their words more clearly have 
indicated an assurance in the worshipper, that the Spirit 
of the Deity was especially present in that image, than 
the attitude, the eyes, the words of the pilgrims at 
Einsiedlin for example, are indications of the same 

r2 



244 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

belief and assurance with regard to the statue of the 
Virgin Mary? These thoughts would force themselves 
again and again on my mind ; and though since I 
first witnessed such things many years have inter- 
vened, chequered with various events of life, yet whilst 
I am writing, the scenes are brought again fresh to 
my remembrance ; the same train of thought is awak- 
ened ; and the lapse of time has not in the least dimi- 
nished the estimate then formed of the danger, the 
awful peril, to which the practice of addressing saints 
and angels in prayer, even in its most modified and 
mitigated form, exposes those who are in communion 
with Rome. I am unwilling to dwell on this point 
longer, or to paint in deeper or more vivid colours the 
scenes which I have witnessed, than the necessity of the 
case requires. But it would have been the fruit of a 
morbid delicacy rather than of brotherly love, had I 
disguised, in this part of my address, the full extent of 
the awful dread with which I contemplate any approxi- 
mation to prayers, of whatever kind, uttered by the lips 
or mentally conceived, to any spiritual existence in 
heaven above, save only to the one God exclusively. 
It is indeed a dread suggested by the highest and 
purest feelings of which I believe my frame of mind to 
be susceptible ; it is sanctioned and enforced by my 
reason ; and it is confirmed and strengthened more and 
more by every year's additional reflection and expe- 
rience. Ardently as I long and pray for Christian unity, 
I could not join in communion with a Church, one 
of whose fundamental articles accuses of impiety 
those who deny the lawfulness of the invocations of 
saints. 

But I return from this digression on the peril of 
idolatry, to which as well the theory as the practice of 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 245 

the Roman Catholic Church exposes her members ; and 
willingly repeat my disclaimer of any wish or intention 
whatever to fasten and filiate upon the Church of Rome 
the doctrines or the practice of individuals, or even of 
different sections of her communion. Still, in the same 
manner as I have referred to the extravagancies which 
offend us in many parts of Christendom now, I would 
recal some of the excesses into which renowned and ap- 
proved authors of her communion have been betrayed. 
I seek not to fix on those members of the Roman Church 
who disclaim any participation in such excesses, the folly 
or guilt of others ; but when we find many of the most 
celebrated among her sons tempted into such lament- 
able departures from primitive Christian worship, we 
are naturally led to ascertain whether the doctrine 
be not itself the genuine cause and source of the mis- 
chief; — whether the malady be not the immediate and 
natural effect of the tenet and practice operating gene- 
rally, and not to be referred to the idiosyncrasy of the 
patient. A voice seems to address us from every side, 
when such excesses are witnessed, Firmly resist the 
beginnings of the evil ; oppose its very commencement ; 
it is not a question of degree, exclude the principle 
itself from your worship ; give utterance to no invoca- 
tion ; mentally conceive no prayer to any being, save 
God alone ; plead no other merits with Him than the 
merits of his only Son. Then, and then only, are you 
safe. Then, and then only, is your prayer catholic, 
primitive, apostolic, and scriptural. 

1 The most satisfactory method of conducting this 

1 I believe the method best calculated to supply us with the very 
truth is, as I have before observed, to trace the conduct of Christians 
at the shrines of the martyrs, and follow them in their successive de- 
partures further and further from primitive purity and simplicity, on 
the anniversaries of those servants of God. What was hailed there 



246 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

branch of our inquiry seems to be, that we should 
examine the Roman Ritual with reference to those 
several and progressive stages to which I have before 
generally referred ; from the mere rhetorical apostrophe 
to the direct prayer for spiritual blessings petitioned 
for immediately from the person addressed. I am 
neither anxious to establish the progress historically, 
nor do I wish to tie myself down in all cases to the 
exact order of those successive stages, in my present 
citation of testimonies from the Roman Ritual. My 
anxiety is to give a fair view of what is now the real 
character of Roman Catholic worship, rather than to 
draw fine distinctions. I shall therefore survey within 
the same field of view the two fatal errors by which, as 
we believe, the worship of the Church of Rome is ren- 
dered unfit for the family of Christ to acknowledge it 
generally as their own : I mean the adoration of saints, 
and the pleading of their merits at the throne of grace, 
instead of trusting to the alone exclusive merits of the 
one only Mediator Jesus Christ our Lord, and address- 
ing God Almighty alone. 

I. In the original form of those prayers in which 
mention was made of the saints departed, Christians 
addressed the Supreme Being alone, either in praise for 
the mercies shown to the saints themselves, and to the 
Church through their means; or else in supplication, 
that the worshippers might have grace to follow their 
example, and profit by their instruction. Such, for 
instance, is the prayer in the Roman ritual l on St. 

first in the full warmth of admiration and zeal for the honour and 
glory of a national or favourite martyr, crept stealthily, and step by 
step, into the regular and stated services of the Church. 

1 The references will generally be given to the Roman Breviary as 
dited by F. C. Husenbeth, Norwich, 1830. That work consists of 






CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 247 

John's day \ which is evidently the foundation of the 
beautiful Collect now used in the Anglican Church, — 
"Merciful Lord, we beseech thee to cast thy bright 
beams of light upon thy Church, that it being enlight- 
ened by the doctrine of thy Apostle and Evangelist 
St. John, may so walk in the light of thy truth, that it 
may at length attain to the light of everlasting life, 
through Jesus our Lord. Amen." Such too is the 
close of the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's 
Church militant here on earth, offered in our Anglican 
service, — "We bless thy holy name for all thy ser- 
vants departed this life in thy faith and fear, beseeching 
thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, 
that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly 
kingdom. Grant this, O Father, for the sake of Jesus 
Christ our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen." 

II. The second stage supplies examples of a kind of 
rhetorical apostrophe ; the speaker addressing one who 
was departed as though he had ears to hear. Were 
not this the foundation stone on which the rest of the 
edifice seems to have been built, we might have passed 
it by unnoticed. Of this we have an instance in the 
address to the Shepherds on Christmas-day. " Whom 
have ye seen, ye shepherds ? Say ye, tell ye, who hath 
appeared on the earth ? Say ye, what saw ye ? An- 
nounce to us the nativity of Christ 2 ." 

four volumes, corresponding with the four quarters of the ecclesias- 
tical year — Winter, Hiem. ; Spring, Vern. ; Summer, iEstiv. : Au- 
tumn, Aut.; and the volumes will be designated by the correspond- 
ing initials, H. V. M. A. 

1 " Ecclesiam, tuam, Domine, benignus illustra, ut beati Johannis 
Apostoli tui et evangelistae illuminata doctrinis, ad dona perveniat 
sempiterna. Per Dominum." — Husen. H. p. 243. 

2 Quern vidistis, Pastores ? Dicite, Annunciate nobis. In terris 



248 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

Another instance is seen in that beautiful song 
ascribed to Prudentius and used on the day of Holy 
Innocents : 

" Hail ! ye flowers of Martyrs '." 

It is of the same character with other songs, said to 
be from the same pen, in which the town of Bethlehem 
is addressed, and even the Cross. 

" O Thou of mighty cities 2 ." 
" Bend thy boughs, thou lofty tree 3 . . . ." 
" Worthy wast thou alone 
To bear the victim of the world." 

Thus, on the feast of the exaltation of the Cross, this 
anthem is sung, — " O blessed Cross, who wast alone 
worthy to bear the King of the heavens and the Lord 4 ." 
Though unhappily, in an anthem on St. Andrew's day, 
this apostrophe becomes painful and distressing, in 
which not only is the cross thus apostrophised, but it is 
prayed to, as though it had ears to hear, and a mind to 
understand, and power to act, — " Hail, precious Cross ! 
do thou receive the disciple of Him who hung upon 
thee, my master, Christ V The Church of Rome, in 
this instance, gives us a vivid example of the ease 
with which exclamations and apostrophes are made the 
ground-work of invocations. In the legend of the day 
similar, though not the same, words form a part of the 
salutation, which St. Andrew is there said to have ad- 

quis apparuit ? Dicite quidnam vidistis ? Et annunciate Christi 
nativitatem. — H. 219. 

1 Salvete flores martyrum. H. 249. 

2 O sola magnarum urbium. H. 306. 

3 Flecte ramos arbor alta, &c. Aut. 344. 

4 O crux benedicta, quae sola fuisti digna portare Regem coelorum 
et Dominum. Alleluia. A. 345. 

5 Salve, crux pretiosa suscipe discipulum ejus, qui pependit in te, 
magister meus Christus. A. 547. 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 249 

dressed to the cross of wood prepared for his own 
martyrdom, and then bodily before his eyes. There 
are many such addresses to the Cross, in various parts 
of the Roman ritual ! . 

In such apostrophes the whole of the Song of the 
Three Children abounds ; and we meet with many 
such in the early writers. 

III. The third stage supplies instances of prayer to 
God, imploring him to allow the supplication of his 
saints to be offered for us. Of this we find examples 
in the Collects for St. Andrew's Eve and Anniversary, 
for the feast of St. Anthony, and various others. 

"We beseech thee, Almighty God, that he whose 
feast we are about to celebrate may implore thy aid 
for us 2 ," &c. 

" That he may be for us a perpetual intercessor 3 ." 

" We beseech thee, O Lord, let the intercession of 
the blessed Anthony the Abbot commend us, that what 
we cannot effect by our own merits, we may obtain by 
his patronage 4 : through the Lord." 

These prayers I could not offer in faith. I am 
taught in the written word to look for no other inter- 
cessor in heaven, than one who is eternal and divine, 
therefore I can need no other. Had God, by his 
revealed word, told me that the intercessions of his 
servants departed should prevail with Him, provided 
I sought that benefit by prayer, I should, without 
any misgiving, have implored Him to receive their 

1 See A. 344. 

2 Qusesumus omnipotens Deus, ut beatus Andreas Apostolus 
.cujus praevenimus festivitatem, tuum pro nobis imploret auxilium. 

A. 545. 

3 Ut apud te sit pro nobis perpetuus 'intercessor. A. 551. 

4 Ejus patrocinio assequamur. H. 490. 



250 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

prayers in my behalf; but I can find no such an inti- 
mation in the covenant. In that covenant the word 
of the God of truth and mercy is pledged to receive 
those, and to grant the prayers of those who come 
to him through his blessed Son. In that covenant, I 
am strictly commanded and most lovingly invited to 
approach boldly the Supreme Giver of all good things 
myself, and to ask in faith nothing wavering, with an 
assurance that He who spared not his own Son, but 
delivered Him up for us all, will, with Him, also freely 
give us all things. In this assurance I place implicit 
trust ; and as long as I have my being in this earthly 
tabernacle, I will, by his gracious permission and help, 
pray for whatever is needful for the soul and the body ; 
I will pray not for myself only, but for all, individually 
and collectively, who are near and dear to me, and all 
who are far from me; for my friends, and for those 
who wish me ill; for my fellow Christians, and for 
those who are walking still in darkness and sin ; — I 
will pray for mercy on all mankind. And I will, as 
occasion offers, desire others among the faithful on 
earth to pray for me ; and will take comfort and en- 
couragement and holy hope from the reflection that 
their prayers are presented to God in my behalf, and 
that they will continue to pray for me when my own 
strength shall fail and the hour of my departure shall 
draw nigh. But for the acceptance of my own prayers 
and of theirs I can depend on no other Mediator in 
the world of spirits, than on Him, whom his own Word 
declares to be the one Mediator between God and men, 
who prayed for me when He was on earth, who is ever 
making intercession for me in heaven. I know of no 
other in the unseen world, by whom I can have access 
to the Father; I find no other offered to me, I seek no 






CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 251 

other, I want no other. I trust my cause, — the cause 
of my present life, the cause of my soul's eternal happi- 
ness, — to Him and to his intercession. I thank God for 
the blessing. I am satisfied ; and in the assurance of 
the omnipotence of his intercession, and the perfect 
fulness of his mediation, I am happy. 

On this point it were well to compare two prayers 
both offered to God ; the one pleading with Him the 
intercession of the passion of his only Son, the other 
pleading the prayers of a mortal man. The first prayer 
is a collect in Holy Week, the second is a collect on 
St. Gregory's Day. 

We beseech thee, Almighty O God, who hast granted the 

God, that we who among so many rewards of eternal blessedness l 
adversities from our own infirmity to the soul of thy servant Gre- 
fail, the passion of thy only be- gory, mercifully grant that we 
gotten Son interceding for us, who are pressed down by the 
may revive. V. 243. weight of our sins, may, by his 

prayers with Thee, be raised up. 

V. 480. 

IV. The next form of prayer to which I would invite 
your serious attention, is one from which my judgment 
and my feelings revolt far more decidedly even than 
from the last-mentioned ; and I have the most clear 
denouncement of my conscience, that by offering it I 
should do a wrong to my Saviour, and ungratefully 
disparage his inestimable merits, and the full, perfect, 
and sufficient sacrifice and satisfaction of his omni- 

1 I can never read this, and such passages as this, without asking 
myself, can such an assertion be in accordance with the inspired 
teaching? — " Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, 
who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will 
make manifest the counsels of the hearts : and then shall every man 
have praise of God." 1 Cor. iv. 5. 



252 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

potent atonement : I mean those prayers, still addressed 
to God, which supplicate that our present and future 
good may be advanced by the merits of departed 
mortals, that by their merits our sins may be forgiven, 
and our salvation secured; that by their merits our 
souls may be made fit for celestial joys, and be finally 
admitted into heaven. 

Of these prayers the Roman Breviary contains a 
great variety of examples, some exceeding others very 
much in their apparent forgetfulness and disregard of 
the merits of the only Saviour, and consequently far 
more shocking to the reason and affections of us who 
hold it a point of conscience to make the merits of 
Christ alone, all in all, exclusive of any other to be 
joined with them, the only ground of our acceptance 
with God. 

We find an example of this prayer in the collect on 
the day of St. Saturnine. " O God, who grantest us 
to enjoy the birth-day of the blessed Saturnine, thy 
martyr, grant that we may be aided by his merits, 
through the Lord '." 

Another example, in which the supplicants plead for 
deliverance from hell, to be obtained by the merits and 
prayers of the saint together, is the Collect for Decem- 
ber 6th, the day of St. Nicolas. 

" O God, who didst adorn the blessed Pontiff Nicolas 
with unnumbered miracles, grant, we beseech Thee, 
that by his merits and prayers w r e may be set free from 
the fires of hell 2 , through," &c. 

Another example, in like manner specifying both the 
merits and intercession of the departed saint, contains 

1 Ejus nos tribue meritis adjuvari per Dominum. A. 544. 

2 Ut ejus meritis et precibus a gehennae incendiis liberemur. 
H. 436. 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 253 

expressions very unacceptable to many of those who 
are accustomed to make the Bible their study. It is a 
prayer to Joseph, the espoused husband of the Virgin 
Mary. Of him mention is made by name in the 
Gospel just before and just after the birth of Christ, 
as an upright, merciful man, to whom God on three 
several occasions made a direct revelation of his 
will, by the medium of a dream, with reference to the 
incarnate Saviour. Again, on the holy family visiting 
Jerusalem, when our Lord was twelve years of age, 
Mary, his mother, in her remonstrance with her Son, 
speaks to Him of Joseph thus : " Why hast Thou thus 
dealt with us ? Behold thy father and I have sought 
Thee sorrowing." Upon which not one word was 
uttered by our Saviour that would enable us to form 
an opinion as to his own will with regard to Joseph. 
Our Lord seems purposely to have drawn their thoughts 
from his earthly connexion with them, and to have 
raised their minds to a contemplation of his unearthly, 
his heavenly, and eternal origin. " How is it that ye 
sought me? Wist ye not that I must be about my 
Father's business?" After this time, though the writ- 
ings of the Holy Book, either historical, doctrinal, or 
prophetic, at the lowest calculation embrace a period 
of fourscore years, no allusion is made to Joseph as a 
man still living, or to his memory as one already dead. 
And yet he is one of those for the benefit of whose 
intercession the Church of Rome teaches her members 
to pray to God, and from whose merits they are taught 
to hope for succour. 

On the 19th of March the following Collect is offered 
to the Saviour of the world : — 

" We beseech thee, O Lord, that we may be succoured 
by the merits of the husband of thy most holy mother, 



254 PRKSENT SERVICE [PART II. 

so that what we cannot obtain by our own power, may 
be granted to us by his intercession. Who livest," &c l 

It is anticipating our instances of the different stages 
observable in the invocation of saints, to quote here 
direct addresses to Joseph himself; still it may be well 
to bring at once to a close our remarks with regard to 
the worship paid to him. We find that in the Litany of 
the Saints, " St. Joseph, pray for us," is one of the 
supplications; but on his day (March 19) there are 
three hymns addressed to Joseph, which appear to be 
full of lamentable superstition, assigning, as they do, to 
him a share at least in the work of our salvation, and 
solemnly stating, as a truth, what, whether true or not, 
depends upon a groundless tradition, namely, that our 
blessed Lord and Mary watched by him at his death ; 
ascribing to Joseph also that honour and praise, which 
the Church was wont to offer to God alone. The fol- 
lowing are extracts from those hymns : 

First hymn 2 . "Thee, Joseph, let the companies of 
heaven celebrate; thee let all the choirs of Christian 
people resound ; who, bright in merits, wast joined 
in chaste covenant with the renowned Virgin. Others 
their pious death consecrates after death ; and glory 
awaits those who deserve the palm. Thou alive, equal 
to those above, enjoyest God, more blessed by won- 
drous lot. O Trinity, most High, spare us who pray; 
grant us to reach heaven [to scale the stars] by the 
merits of Joseph, that at length we may perpetually 
offer to thee a grateful song." 

Second hymn 3 . " O, Joseph, the glory of those in 
heaven, and the sure hope of our life, and the safeguard 

1 V. 486. 

2 Te Joseph celebrent agmina coelitum. V. 485. 

3 Coelitum, Joseph, Decus. V. 486. 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF EOME. 255 

of the world, benignly accept the praises which we 

joyfully sing to thee Perpetual praise to the 

most High Trinity, who granting to thee honours on 
high, give to us, by thy merits, the joys of a blessed 
life." 

Third hymn ! . " He whom we, the faithful, worship 
with joy, whose exalted triumphs we celebrate, Joseph 
on this day obtained by merit the joys of eternal life. 
O too happy ! O too blessed ! at whose last hour 
Christ and the Virgin together, with serene counte- 
nance, stood watching. Hence, conqueror of hell, freed 
from the bands of the flesh, he removes in placid sleep 
to the everlasting seats, and binds his temples with 
bright chaplets. Him, therefore, reigning, let us all 
importune, that he would be present with us, and that 
he obtaining pardon for our transgressions, would assign 
to us the rewards of peace on high. Be praises to 
thee, be honours to thee, O Trine God, who reignest, 
and assignest golden crowns to th) faithful servant for 
ever. Amen." 

It is painful to remark, that in these last clauses the 
very same word is employed when the Church of Rome 
applies to Joseph to assign to the faithful the rewards 
of peace, and when she ascribes glory to God for 
assigning to his faithful servants crowns of gold. In- 
deed these hymns contain many expressions which 
ought to be addressed to the Saviour alone, whose 
" glory is in the heavens," who is " the hope of us on 
earth," and " the safeguard of the world." 



Under this fourth head I will add only one more 
specimen. Would it were not to be found in the Roman 

1 Iste, quern lseti colimus fideles. V. 490. 



256 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

Liturgies since the Council of Trent : God grant it may 
ere long be wiped out of the book of Christian worship ! 
It is a collect in which the Church of Rome offers this 
prayer to God the Son : — 

" O God, whose right hand raised the blessed Peter 
when walking on the waves, that he sank not ; and 
rescued his fellow-apostle Paul, for the third time suf- 
fering shipwreck, from the depth of the sea ; mercifully 
hear us, and grant that by the merits of both we may 
obtain the glory of eternity '." 

Now suppose for a moment it had been intended in 
any one prayer negatively to exclude the merits of 
Christ from the great work of our eternal salvation, 
and to limit our hopes of everlasting glory to the merits 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, could that object have been 
more effectually and fully secured than by this prayer ? 
Not one word alluding to the redemption which is in 
Christ can be found in this prayer. The sentiment in 
the first member of the prayer refers us to the power 
exercised by the Son of God, and Son of man, when 
he was intabernacled in our flesh ; and the second ex- 
pression teaches us to contemplate the providence of 
our Almighty Saviour in his deeds of beneficence. 
But no reference, even by allusion, is here made to the 
merits of Christ's death — none to his merits as our 
great Redeemer ; none to his merits as our never- 
ceasing and never-failing Intercessor. We are led to 
approach the throne of grace only with the merits of 
the two Apostles on our tongue. If those who offer 
it hope for acceptance through the mediation of Jesus 
Christ, and for the sake of his merits, that hope is 
neither suggested nor fostered by this prayer. The 
truth, as it is in Jesus, would compel us in addressing 

1 H. 149. 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 257 

Him, the Saviour of the world, to think of the merits 
of neither Peter nor Paul, of neither angel nor spirit. 
Instead of praying- to him that we may obtain the glories 
of eternity for their merits, true faith in Christ would 
bid us throw ourselves implicitly on his omnipotent 
merits alone, and implore so great a blessing for his 
own mercy's sake. If we receive the whole truth, can 
it appear otherwise than a disparagement of his perfect 
and omnipotent merits, to plead with Him the merits 
of one, whom the Saviour himself rebuked with as 
severe a sentence as ever fell from his lips, " Get thee 
behind me, Satan, thou art an offence to me ; for thou 
savourest not the things that be of God, but those that 
be of men ' ;" and of another who after his conversion, 
when speaking of the salvation wrought by Christ, 
in profound humility confesses himself to be a chief 
of those sinners for whom the Saviour died, " This is a 
faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of 
whom I am chief 2 ?" We feel, indeed, a sure and 
certain hope that these two fellow-creatures, once sin- 
ners, but by God's grace afterwards saints, have found 
mercy with God, and will live with Christ for ever; 
but to pray for the same mercy at his gracious hands 
for the sake of their merits is repugnant to our first 
principles of Christian faith. When we think of 
merits, for which to plead for mercy, we can think of 
Christ's, and of Christ's alone. 

V. Our thoughts are next invited to that class of 
prayers which the Church of Rome authorizes and directs 
to be addressed immediately to the Saints themselves. 

1 Matt. xvi. 23. 2 1 Tim. i. 15. 

S 



258 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

Of these there are different kinds, some far more objec- 
tionable than others, though all are directly at variance 
with that one single and simple principle, to which, as 
we believe, a disciple of the cross can alone safely 
adhere — prayer to God, and only to God. The words 
of the Council of Trent are, as we have already observed, 
very comprehensive on this subject. They not only de- 
clare it to be a good and useful thing supplicantly to 
invoke the saints reigning with Christ : but also for the 
obtaining of benefits from God, through Jesus Christ our 
Lord, who is our only Redeemer and Saviour, to fly to 
their prayers, help, and assistance. Whether these 
last words can be interpreted as merely words of sur- 
plusage, or whether they must be understood to mean 
that the faithful must have recourse to some help and 
assistance of the saints beyond their intercession, is a 
question to which we need not again revert. If it had 
been intended to embrace other kinds of beneficial 
succour, and other help and assistance, perhaps it would 
be difficult to find words more expressive of such ge- 
neral aid and support as a human being might hope to 
derive, in answer to prayer from the Giver of all good. 
And certainly they are words employed by the Church, 
when addressing prayers directly to God. Be this as 
it may, the public service-books of the Church of Rome 
unquestionably, by no means adhere exclusively to such 
addresses to the saints, as supplicate them to pray for 
the faithful on earth. Many a prayer is couched in 
language which can be interpreted only as conveying 
a petition to them immediately for their assistance, 
temporal and spiritual. 

But let us calmly review some of the prayers, sup- 
plications, invocations, or by whatever name religious 
addresses now offered to the saints may be called ; and 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 259 

first, we will examine that class in which the petitioners 
ask merely for the intercession of the saints. 

We have an example of this class in an invocation 
addressed to St. Ambrose on his day, December 7 ; the 
very servant of Christ in whose hymns and prayers no 
address of prayer or invocation to any saint or martyr 
can be found. 

"O thou most excellent teacher, the light of the 
Holy Church, O blessed Ambrose, thou lover of the 
divine law, deprecate for us [or intercede for us with] 
the Son of God 1 ." 

The Church of Rome has wisely availed herself of the 
pious labours of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan ; and has 
introduced into her public worship many of the hymns 
usually ascribed to him. Would she had followed his 
example, and addressed her invocations to no one but 
our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier ! Could 
that holy man hear the supplications now offered to 
him, and could he make his voice heard in return 
among those who now invoke him, that voice, we 
believe, would only convey a prohibitory monition like 
that of the Angel to St. John when he fell down before 
him, See thou do it not ; I am thy fellow-servant ; 
worship God. 

It is needless to multiply instances of this fifth kind 
of invocation. In the "Litany of the Saints" more 
than fifty different saints are enumerated by name, and 
are invoked to pray and intercede for those who join in 

1 H. 438. " Deprecare pro nobis Filium Dei." This invocation 
to Ambrose is instantly followed by this prayer to God : " O God, 
who didst assign to thy people the blessed Ambrose as a minister of 
eternal salvation, grant, we beseech Thee, that we may deserve to 
have him as our intercessor in heaven, whom we had as a teacher of 
life on earth." 

s2 



260 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

it. Among the persons invoked are Raphael ', Gervasius, 
Protasius, and Mary Magdalene ; whilst in the Litany 2 
for the recommendation of the soul of the sick and dying, 
the names of Abel, and Abraham, are specified. 

Under this head I will call your attention only to one 
more example. Indeed I scarcely know whether this 
hymn would more properly be classed under this head, 
or reserved for the next ; since it appears to partake of 
the nature of each. It supplicates the martyr to obtain 
by his prayers spiritual blessings, and yet addresses him 
as the person who is to grant those blessings. It im- 
plores him to liberate us by the love of Christ ; but so 
should we implore the Father of mercies himself. Still, 
as the more safe course, I would regard it as a prayer to 
St. Stephen only to intercede for us. But it may be 
well to derive from it a lesson on this point ; how easily 
the transition glides from one false step to a worse; 
how infinitely wiser and safer it is to avoid evil in its 
very lowest and least noxious appearance : 

" Martyr of God [or Unconquered Martyr], who, by 
following the only Son of the Father, triumphest over 
thy conquered enemies, and, as conqueror, enjoyest hea- 
venly things ; by the office of thy prayer wash out our 
guilt ; driving away the contagion of evil ; removing 
the weariness of life. The bands of thy hallowed body 
are already loosed ; loose thou us from the bands of the 
world, by the love of the Son of God [or by the gift of 
God Most High] V 

In the above hymn the words included within 
brackets are the readings adopted in the last English 
edition of the Roman Breviary ; and in this place, when 
Ave are about to refer to many hymns now in use, it 
may be well to observe, that in the present day we find 
1 JE. cxcii. 2 M. cxcvi, ? H. 237. 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 261 

various readings in the hymns as they are still printed 
for the use of Roman Catholics in different countries. 
In some instances the changes are curious and striking. 
Grancolas, in his historical commentary on the Roman 
Breviary (Venice, 1 734, p. 84), furnishes us with inte- 
resting information as to the chief cause of this diversity. 
He tells us that Pope Urban VIII., who filled the papal 
throne from 1623 to 1644, a man well versed in litera- 
ture, especially in Latin poetry, and himself one of the 
distinguished poets of his time, took measures for the 
emendation of the hymns in the Roman Breviary. He 
was offended by the many defects in their metrical com- 
position, and it is said that upwards of nine hundred 
and fifty faults in metre were corrected, which gave 
to Urban occasion to say that the Fathers had begun 
rather than completed the hymns. These, as corrected, 
he caused to be inserted in the Breviary. Grancolas 
proceeds to tell us that many complained of these 
changes, alleging that the primitive simplicity and piety 
which breathed in the hymns had been sacrificed to the 
niceties of poetry. " Accessit Latinitas, et recessit pietas." 
The verse was neater, but the thought was chilled. 

VI. But the Roman Church by no means limits her- 
self to this kind of invocation ; prayers are addressed to 
saints, imploring them to hear, and, as of themselves, to 
grant the prayers of the faithful on earth, and to release 
them from the bands of sin, without any allusion to 
prayers to be made by those saints. It grieves me to 
copy out the invocation made to St. Peter on the 18th 
of January, called the anniversary of the Chair of St. 
Peter at Rome ; the words of our Blessed Lord himself, 
and of his beloved and inspired Apostle, seem to rise up 
in judgment against that prayer, and condemn it. It 



262 



PRESENT SERVICE 



[PART II. 



will be well to place that hymn addressed to St. Peter, 
side by side with the very word of God, and then ask, 
Can this prayer be safe ? 



1. Now, O good Shepherd, 
merciful Peter, 

2. Accept the prayers of us 
who supplicate, 



3. And loose the bands of our 
sins, by the power committed to 
thee, 

4. By which thou shuttest 
heaven against all by a word, 
and openest it 1 . 



1. Jesus saith, I am the good 
Shepherd. John x. 14. 

2. Whatsoever ye shall ask in 
my name, that will I do. That 
whatsoever ye shall ask the 
Father in my name, he may give 
it you. John xiv. 13 ; xv. 16. 

3. The blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 
1 John i. 7. 

4. These things saith he that 
is holy, he that is true, he that 
openeth and no man shutteth, and 
shutteth and no man openeth. 
Rev. lii. 7. 

I am he that liveth and was 
dead, and am alive for evermore, 
and have the keys of hell and of 
death. Rev. i. 18. 






Let it not be answered that many a Christian minis- 
ter is now called a good shepherd. Let it not be 
said that the very words of our ordination imply the 
conveyance of the power of loosing and binding, of 
opening and shutting the gates of heaven. When 
prayer is contemplated, we can think only of One, Him, 
who has appropriated the title of Good Shepherd to 

1 This hymn is variously read. In the edition of Mr. Husenbeth 
(H. 497.) it is: "O Peter, blessed shepherd, of thy mercy receive 
the prayers of us who supplicate, and loose by thy word the bands 
of our sins, thou to whom is given the power of opening heaven to 
the earth, and of shutting it when open. — " Beate pastor, Petre, 
clemens accipe voces precantum, criminumque vincula verbo resolve, 
cui potestas tradita aperire terris ccelum, apertum claudere." H. 497. 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 



263 



himself. And we must see that Peter cannot, by any 
latitude of interpretation, be reckoned now among 
those to whom the awful duty is assigned of binding 
and loosing upon earth. 

The same unsatisfactory associations must be excited 
in the mind of every one who takes a similar view of 
Christian worship with myself, by the following suppli- 
cation to various saints on St. John's day : 

" Let the heaven exult with praises \ 
Let the earth resound with joy ; 



1 Having inserted in the text i 
copy with which I had been long 
here the two forms side by side, 
changes to which we have already 

Lille, 1823. 

OLD VERSION. 

Exultet ccelum laudibus, 
Resultet terra gaudiis, 
Apostolorum gloriam 
Sacra canunt solemnia. 
Vos ssecli justi judices 
Et vera mundi lumina, 
Votis precamur cordium 
Audite preces supplicum. 
Qui ccelum verbo clauditis 
Serasque ejus solvitis, 
Nos a peccatis omnibus 
Solvite jussu, quaesumus. 
Quorum praecepto subditur 
Salus et languor omnium, 
Sanate aegros moribus, 
Nos reddentes virtutibus. 
Ut cum judex advenerit 
Christus in fine saeculi, 
Nos sempiterni gaudii 
Faciat esse compotes. 
Deo Patri sit gloria, 
Ej usque soli Filio, 



l translation of this hymn from a 
familiar, I think it right to insert 
They supply an example of the 
alluded. 

Norwich, 1830. 
pope urban's version. 
Exultet orbis gaudiis, 
Ccelum resultet laudibus, 
Apostolorum gloriam 
Tellus et astra concinunt. 
Vos saeculorum judices 
Et vera mundi lumina, 
Votis precamur cordium 
Audite voces supplicum. 
Qui templa cceli clauditis 
Serasque verbo solvitis, 
Nos a reatu noxios 
Solvi jubete quaesumus. 
Praecepta quorum protinus 
Languor salusque sentiunt, 
Sanate mentes languidas, 
Augete nos virtutibus. 
Ut cum redibit arbiter 
In fine Christus saeculi, 
Nos sempiterni gaudii 
Concedat esse compotes. 
Jesu, tibi sit gloria 
Qui natus es de virgine, 



264 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

The sacred solemnities sing 

The glory of the Apostles. 

O ye Just Judges of the age, 

And true lights of the world, 

We pray you with the vows of our hearts, 

Hear the prayers of your suppliants. 

Ye who shut the heaven by a word, 

And loose its bars, 

Loose us by command, we beseech you, 

From all our sins. 

Ye to whose word is subject 

The health and weakness of all, 

Cure us who are diseased in morals, 

Restore us to virtues. 

So that when Christ shall come, 

The Judge at the end of the world, 

He may make us partakers 

Of eternal joy. 

To God the Father be Glory, 

And to his only Son, 

With the Spirit the Comforter, 

Now and for ever. Amen \ 

Cum Spiritu paracleto, Cum Patre et Almo Spiritu, 

Et nunc et in perpetuum. In sempiterna saecula. 

Amen. Amen. 

(H. 243.) 
1 Or as in the present Roman Breviary : — 

Let the world exult with joy, 

Let the heaven resound with praise ; 

The earth and stars sing together 

The glory of the Apostles. 

Ye judges of the ages 

And true lights of the world, 

With the prayers of our hearts we implore, 

Hear the voices of your suppliants. 

Ye who shut the temples of heaven, 

And loose its bars by a word, 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 265 

Many a pious and humble Catholic of the Roman 
Communion, I have no doubt, would regard these 
prayers as little more than an application to Peter and 
the rest of the Apostles for absolution, and would 
interpret its several clauses as an acknowledgment 
only of that power, which Christ himself delegated to 
them of binding and loosing sins on earth. But the 
gulf fixed between these prayers, and the lawful use 
of the power given to Christ's ordained ministers on 
earth, is great indeed. To satisfy the mind of this, it 
is not necessary to enter upon even the confines of the 
wide field of controversy, as to what was really con- 
veyed by Christ to his Apostles. I would ask only two 
questions. Could any of us address these same words 
to one of Christ's ministers on earth? And could 
we address our blessed Saviour himself in stronger or 
more appropriate language, as the Lord of our desti- 
nies — the God who heareth prayer — the Physician of 
our souls ? 

Suppose for example we were celebrating the anni- 
versary of Christ's Nativity, of his Resurrection, or his 
Ascension, what word in this hymn, expressive of 

Command ye us, who are guilty, 

To be released from our sins, we pray. 

Ye whose commands forthwith 

Sickness and health feel, 

Heal our languid minds, 

Increase us in virtues, 

That when Christ, the Judge, shall return, 

In the end of the world, 

He may grant us to be partakers 

Of eternal joy. 

Jesus, to thee be glory, 

Who wast born of a virgin, 

With the Father and the Benign Spirit, 

Through eternal ages. Amen. 



266 PRESENT SERVICE [PART II. 

power, and honour, and justice, and mercy, would not 
be appropriate ? What word would not apply to Him, 
in most perfect accordance with Scripture language? 
And can we without offence, without doing wrong to 
his great Name, address the same to our fellow-ser- 
vants, even though we may believe them to be with 
Him in glory ? 

Let the heaven exult with praises — 

Let the earth resound with joy ; 

The sacred solemnities sing 

The glory of the Lord. 

O Thou just Judge of the age, 

And true light of the world, 

We pray Thee with the supplications of our hearts 

Hear the prayers of Thy suppliants, 

Thou who shuttest the heavens by a word, 

And loosest its bars. 

Loose us by command, we beseech Thee, 

From all our sins. 

Thou to whose word is subject 

The health and weakness of all, 

Cure us who are diseased in morals, 

Restoring us to virtue. 

So that when Thou shalt come, 

The Judge at the end of the world, 

Thou mayest make us partakers 

Of eternal joy. 

Glory to Thee, O Lord, 

Who wast born of a virgin, 

With the Father and the Holy Spirit, 

For ever and ever. Amen. 

Only for a moment let us see how peculiarly all these 
expressions are fitting in a hymn of prayer and praise 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 



267 



to our God and Saviour, recalling to our minds the 
words of inspiration; and then again let us put the 
question to our conscience, Is this language fit for us 
to use to a fellow-creature ? 



Let the heaven exult with praises, 
Let the earth resound with joy : 



The holy solemnities sing 
The glory of the Lord. 



Thou just Judge of mankind, 
And true light of the world, 



With the prayers of our hearts we 
pray Thee, 

Hear the prayers of Thy sup- 
pliants. 



Thou who shuttest heaven by 

Thy word, 
And loosest its bars. 



Let the heavens rejoice, and 
let the earth be glad . . . (exultet 
is the very word used in the Vul- 
gate translation of the Psalm) — 
before the Lord, for He cometh 
to judge the earth. — Ps. xcvi 
(xcv). 11. 

Ye shall have a song, as in the 
night when a holy solemnity is 
kept . . . And the Lord shall cause 
His glorious voice to be heard. 
Isa. xxx. 29. Let the heaven 
and earth praise Him. Ps. lxix 
(lxviii). 34. 

All judgment is committed 
unto the Son. John v. 22. That 
was the true Light, which light- 
eth every man that cometh into 
the world. John i. 9. 

With my whole heart have I 
sought Thee. Ps. cxix (cxviii). 
10. Hear my prayer, O God. 
Ps. lxi (lx). 1. Whom have I in 
heaven but Thee? Ps. lxxiii 
(lxxii). 25. And this is the con- 
fidence that we have in Him, that 
if we ask any thing according to 
His will, He heareth us. 1 John 
v. 14. 

I have the keys of death and of 
hell. These things saith He that 
is holy, He that is true : He 
that hath the key of David. He 
that "openeth and no man shut- 
teth, and shutteth and no man 



268 



PRESENT SERVICE 



[PART II. 



Release us by command, we pray 

Thee, 
From all our sins. 



Thou to whose word is subject 
The health and weakness of all, 

Do Thou heal us who are mo- 
rally diseased, 
Restoring us to virtue ; 



openeth. I have set before thee 
an open door, and no man can 
shut it. Rev. i. 18 ; iii. 7, 8. 

Thy sins be forgiven thee. 
Matt. ix. 22. Bless the Lord, O 
my soul . . . who forgiveth all 
thine iniquities. Ps. ciii. 2. This 
is my blood of the New Testa- 
ment, which is shed for many 
for the remission of sins. Matt. 
xxvi. 28. Have mercy upon me, 
O God .... according to the 
multitude of Thy tender mercies, 
blot out my transgressions. Wash 
me throughly from mine ini- 
quity, and cleanse me from my 
sin. Ps. li (1). 

Bless the Lord, O my soul . . . 
who healeth all thy diseases. Ps. 
ciii (cii). 2, 3. 

Create in me a clean heart, O 
God, and renew a right spirit 
within me. Ps. li. 10. (4.) 



That when Thou, the Judge, shalt appear in the end of the world, 
Thou mayest grant us to be partakers of eternal joy. 



This would be a Christian prayer, a primitive prayer, 
a scriptural prayer, a prayer well fitting mortal man 
to utter by his tongue and from his heart, to the 
God who heareth prayer; and him who shall in sincere 
faith offer such a prayer, Christ will never send empty 
away. But if this prayer, fitted as it seems only to be 
addressed to God, be offered to the soul of a departed 
saint — 1 will not talk of blasphemy, and deadly sin, 
and idolatry, — I will only ask members of the Church 
of Rome to weigh all these things well, one by one. 
These are not subjects for crimination and recrimi- 



CHAP. III.] IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. 269 

nation. We have had far too much of those unholy 
weapons on both sides. Speaking the truth in love, I 
should be verily guilty of a sin in my own conscience 
were I, with my views of Christian worship, to offer 
this prayer to the soul of a man however holy, however 
blessed, however exalted. 

The next part of our work will be given exclusively 
to the worship of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 



PART III.— CHAPTER I. 



SECTION I. 



THE VIRGIN MARY. 



The worship of the blessed Virgin Mary is so highly 
exalted in the Church of Rome, as to require the for- 
mation of a new name to express its high character. 
Neither could the Latin language provide a word which 
would give an adequate idea of its excellence, nor could 
any word previously employed by the writers in Greek, 
meet the case satisfactorily. The newly invented term 
Hyperdulia, meaniug " a service above others," seems 
to place the service of the Virgin on a footing pecu- 
liarly its own, as raised above the worship of the saints 
departed, and of the angels of God, cherubim and sera- 
phim, with all the hosts of principalities and powers 
in heavenly places. The service of the Virgin Mary 
thus appears not only to justify, but even to require 
a separate and distinct examination in this volume. 
The general principles, however, which we have already 
endeavoured to establish and illustrate with regard as 
well to the study of the Holy Scriptures as to the 
evidence of primitive antiquity, are equally applicable 
here ; and with those principles present to our minds, 



272 THE VIRGIN MARY. [PART III. 

we will endeavour now to ascertain the truth with 
regard to the worship of the Virgin as now witnessed 
in the Roman Catholic Church. 

Of the Virgin Mary, think not, brethren of the 
Church of Rome, that a true member of the Anglican 
branch of the Catholic Church will speak disparagingly 
or irreverently. Were such an one found among us, 
we should say of him, he knows not what spirit he is 
of. Our church, in her Liturgy, her homilies, her 
articles, in the works too of the best and most ap- 
proved among her divines and teachers, ever speaks of 
Saint Mary, the blessed Virgin, in the language of 
reverence, affection, and gratitude. 

She was a holy virgin and a holy mother. She was 
highly favoured, blessed among women. The Lord was 
with her, and she was the mother of our only Saviour. 
She was herself blessed, and blessed was the fruit of 
her womb. We delight in the language of our ances- 
tors, in which they were used to call her " Mary, the 
Blissful Maid." Should any one of those who profess 
and call themselves Christians and Catholics, entertain 
a wish to interrupt the testimony of every succeeding 
age, and to interpose a check to the fulfilment of her 
own recorded prophecy, " All generations shall call me 
blessed," certainly the Anglican Catholic Church will 
never acknowledge that wish to be the genuine desire 
of one of her own sons. The Lord hath blessed her ; 
yea, and she shall be blessed. 

But when we are required either to address our 
supplications to her, or else to sever ourselves from the 
communion of a large portion of our fellow-Christians, 
we have no room for hesitation ; the case offers us no 
alternative. Our love of unity must yield to our love 



CHAP. I.] EVIDENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 273 

of truth ; we cannot join in that worship which in 
our conscience we believe to be a sin against God. 
Whether we are right or wrong in this matter, God 
will himself judge : and, compared with his acquittal 
and approval, the severity of man's judgment Cannot 
turn us aside from our purpose. But before any one 
pronounces a sentence of condemnation against us, or 
of approval on himself, it well becomes him patiently 
and dispassionately to weigh the evidence ; lest his de- 
cision may not be consistent with justice and truth. 

In addition to what has been already said on the 
general subject of addressing our invocation to any 
created being — to any one among the principalities and 
thrones, dominions, powers, angels, archangels, and all 
the hosts of heaven, to any one among the saints, mar- 
tyrs, confessors, and holy men departed hence in the 
Lord — I would submit to my brethren of the Roman 
Catholic Church some considerations specifically appli- 
cable to the case of the blessed Virgin, and to the 
practice of the Church of Rome in the religious wor- 
ship paid to her. 

First, it will be well for us to possess ourselves 
afresh of whatever light is thrown on this subject by 
the Scriptures themselves. 



SECTION II. 
EVIDENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 

The first intimation given to us that a woman was in 
the providence of God appointed to be the instrument, 
or channel by which the Saviour of mankind should be 
brought into the world, was made immediately after 
the Fall, and at the very first dawn of the day of salva- 



274 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

tion. I am fully aware how the various criticisms on 
the words in which that first promise of a Saviour is 
couched, have been the well-spring of angry contro- 
versy. I will not enter upon that field. The authorized 
English version thus renders the passage : " I will put 
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy 
seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou 
shalt bruise his heel V The Roman Vulgate, instead of 
the word " it," reads " she." Surely such a point as 
this should be made a subject of calm and enlightened 
criticism, without warmth or heart-burnings on either 
side. But for our present purpose, it matters little 
what turn that controversy may take. I believe our 
own to be the true rendering: but whether the word 
dictated here by the Holy Spirit to Moses should be 
so translated as to refer to the seed of the woman 
generally, as in our authorized version, or to the male 
child, the descendant of the woman, as the Septuagint 
renders it, or to the word 'woman' itself; and if the 
latter, whether it refer to Eve, the mother of every 
child of a mortal parent, or to Mary, the immediate 
mother of our Saviour: whatever view of that 
Hebrew word be taken, no Christian can doubt, that 
before the foundations of the world were laid, it was 
foreordained in the counsels of the Eternal Godhead, 
that the future Messiah, the Redeemer of Mankind, 
should be of the seed of Eve, and in the fulness of 
time be born of a Virgin of the name of Mary, and 
that in the mystery of that incarnation should the ser- 
pent's head be bruised. I wish not to dwell on this, 
because it bears but remotely and incidentally on the 
question at issue. I will, therefore, pass on, quoting 

1 Gen. iii. 15. 



CHAP. I.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 275 

only the words of one of the most laborious among 
Roman Catholic commentators, De Sacy. " The sense 
is the same in the one and in the other, though the 
expression varies. The sense of the Hebrew is, The 
Son of the Woman, Jesus Christ, Son of God, and Son 
of a Virgin, shall bruise thy head, and by establishing 
the kingdom of God on earth, destroy thine. The sense 
of the Vulgate is, The woman, by whom thou hast con- 
quered man, shall bruise thy head, not by herself, but 
by Jesus Christ 1 ." 

The only other passage in which reference appears to 
be made in the Old Testament to the Mother of our 
Lord, contains that celebrated prophecy in the seventh 
chapter of Isaiah, about which I am not aware that any 
difference exists between the Anglican and the Roman 
Churches. " A Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, 
and shall call his name Immanuel 2 ." 

I find no passage in the Old Testament which can 
by any inferential application be brought to bear on 
the question of Mary's being a proper object of invo- 
cation. 



In the New Testament, mention by name is made 
of the Virgin Mary by St. Matthew, St. Mark, and 
St. Luke, and by St. John in his Gospel, as the Mother 
of our Lord, but not by name ; and by no other writer. 
Neither St. Paul in any one of his many Epistles, 
though he mentions the names of many of our Lord's 
disciples, nor St. James, nor St. Peter, who must often 
have seen her during our Lord's ministry, nor St. Jude, 
nor St. John in any of his three Epistles, or in the 

1 Vol. i. p. 132. 2 Isaiah vii. 4. 

T 2 



276 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

Revelation (though, as we learn from his own Gospel, 
she had of especial trust been committed to his care) — 
no one of these either mentions her as living, or alludes 
to her memory as dead. 

The first occasion on which any reference is made in 
the New Testament to the Virgin Mary is the saluta- 
tion of the Angel, as recorded by St. Luke in the open- 
ing chapter of his Gospel. The last occasion is when 
she is mentioned by the same Evangelist, as " Mary 
the Mother of Jesus," in conjunction with his brethren 
and with the Apostles and the women all continuing 
in prayer and supplication, immediately after the ascen- 
sion of our blessed Lord. Between these two occasions 
the name of Mary occurs under a variety of circum- 
stances, on every one of which we shall do well to 
reflect. 

The first occasion, we have already said, is the salu- 
tation of Mary by the angel, announcing to her that 
she should be the Mother of the Son of God. Surely 
no daughter of Eve was ever so distinguished among 
women ; and well does it become us to cherish her 
memory with affectionate reverence. The words ad- 
dressed to her when on earth by the angel in that 
announcement, with a little variation of expression, are 
daily addressed to her by the Roman Catholic Church, 
now that she is no longer seen, but is removed to the 
invisible world. " Hail, thou that art highly favoured ! 
(or as the Vulgate reads it, "full of grace") the Lord is 
with thee. Blessed art thou among women 1 ." On the 
substitution of the expression, "full of grace," for 
"highly favoured," or, as our margin suggests, "gra- 
ciously accepted, or much graced," I am not desirous 

1 Luke i. 28. 



CHAP. I.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 277 

of troubling 1 you with any lengthened remark. I could 
have wished that since the Greek is different in this 
passage, and in the first chapter of St. John, where the 
words "full of grace" are applied to our Saviour, a 
similar distinction had been observed in the Roman 
translation. But the variation is unessential. The 
other expression, " Blessed art thou among women," is 
precisely and identically the same with the ascription 
of blessedness made by an inspired tongue, under the 
elder covenant, to another daughter of Eve. " Blessed 
above women," or (as both the Septuagint and the 
Vulgate render the word) "Blessed among women shall 
Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be V We can see 
no ground in such ascription of blessedness for any 
posthumous adoration of the Virgin Mary. 

The same observation applies with at least equal 
strictness to that affecting interview between Mary 
and Elizabeth, when, enlightened doubtless by an espe- 
cial revelation, Elizabeth returned the salutation of her 
cousin by addressing her as the Mother of her Lord, 
and hailing* her visit as an instance of most welcome 
and condescending kindness, " Whence is this to me, 
that the mother of my Lord should come unto me 2 ?" 
Members of the Anglican Church are taught to refer 
to this event in Mary's life with feelings of delight and 
gratitude. On this occasion she uttered that beautiful 
hymn, " The Song of the blessed Virgin Mary," which 
our Church has selected for daily use at Evening 
Prayer. These incidents bring before our minds the 
image of a spotless Virgin, humble, pious, obedient, holy: 
a chosen servant of God — an exalted pattern for her 
fellow-creatures ; but still a fellow-creature, and a fel- 

1 Judges v. 24. 2 Luke i. 43. 



278 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

low-servant : a virgin pronounced by an angel blessed 
on earth. But further than this we cannot go. We 
read of no power, no authority, neither the power and 
influence of intercession, nor the authority or right of 
command being ever, even by implication, committed to 
her; and we dare not of our own minds venture to 
take for granted a statement of so vast magnitude, 
involving associations so awful. We reverence her 
memory as a blessed woman, the virgin mother of our 
Lord. We cannot supplicate any blessing at her hand ; 
we cannot pray to her for her intercession. 

The angel's announcement to Joseph, whether before 
or after the birth of Christ, the visit of the Magi, the 
flight into Egypt, and the return thence, in the record 
of all of which events by St. Matthew the name of 
Mary occurs, however interesting and important in 
themselves, seem to require no especial attention with 
reference to the immediate subject of our inquiry. To 
Joseph the angel speaks of the blessed Virgin as "Mary 
thy wife 1 ." In every other instance she is called "The 
young child's mother," or "His mother." 

In relating the circumstances of Christ's birth the 
Evangelist employs no words which seem to invite any 
particular examination. Joseph went up into the city 
of David to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife ; 
and there she brought forth her first-born son, and 
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a 
manger. And the shepherds found Mary and Joseph, 
and the babe lying in a manger. And Mary kept all 
these things, and pondered them in her heart \ 

Between the birth of Christ, and the flight into 
Egypt, St. Luke records an event to have happened by 
no means unimportant — the presentation of Christ in 
1 Matt. i. 20. . 2 Luke ii. 19. 






CHAP. I.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 279 

the temple. " And when the days of her purification 
according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they 
brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. 
And he (Simeon) came by the Spirit into the temple; 
and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do 
for him after the custom of the law, then took he him 
up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, &c. 
And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things 
which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, 
and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is 
set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel ; and 
for a sign that shall be spoken against, (yea, a sword 
shall pierce through thine own soul also) that the 
thoughts of many hearts may be revealed 1 ." In this 
incident it is worthy of remark, that Joseph and Mary 
are both mentioned by name, that they are both called 
the parents of the young child ; that both are equally 
blessed by Simeon; and that the good old Israelite, 
illumined by the spirit of prophecy, when he addresses 
himself immediately to Mary, speaks only of her future 
sorrow, and does not even most remotely or faintly 
allude to any exaltation of her above the other daughters 
of Abraham. " A sword shall pass through thine own 
soul also," a prophecy, as St. Augustine interprets it 2 , 
accomplished when she witnessed the sufferings and 
death of her Son. 

The next occasion on which the name of the Virgin 
Mary is found in Scripture, is the memorable visit of 
herself, her husband, and her Son, to Jerusalem, when 
he was twelve years old. And the manner in which 
this incident is related by the inspired Evangelist, so 
far from intimating that Mary was destined to be an 
object of worship to the believers in her Son, affords 
1 Luke ii. 28. 2 See De Sacy, vol. xxxii. p. 138. 



280 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

evidence which exhibits strongly a bearing the direct 
contrary. Here again Joseph and Mary are both called 
his parents : Joseph is once mentioned by name, and so 
is Mary. If the language had been so framed as on pur- 
pose to take away all distinction of preference or supe- 
riority, it could not more successfully have effected its 
purpose. But not only so, of the three addresses re- 
corded as having been made by our blessed Lord to his 
beloved mother (and only three are recorded in the 
New Testament), the first occurs during this visit to 
Jerusalem. It was in answer to the remonstrance 
made by Mary, " Son, why hast thou thus dealt with 
us ? ] Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sor- 
rowing." " How is it that ye sought me ? Knew ye 
not that I must be about my Father's business?" — [or 
in my Father's house, as some render it.] He lifts up 
their minds from earth to heaven, from his human to 
his eternal origin. He makes no distinction here, — 
"Wist ye not." Again, I would appeal to any dis- 
passionate person to pronounce, whether this reproof, 
couched in these words, countenances the idea that our 
blessed Lord intended his human mother to receive 
such divine honour from his followers to the end of 
time as the Church of Rome now pays ? and whether 
St. Luke, whose pen wrote this account, could have 
been made cognizant of any such right invested in the 
Virgin ? 

The next passage calling for our consideration is that 
which records the first miracle 2 : " And the third day 
there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the 
mother of Jesus was there, and both Jesus was called 
and his disciples to the marriage. And when they 
wanted wine (when the wine failed), the mother of 
1 Luke ii. 48. . 2 John ii. 1. 



CHAP. I.] holy scripture. 281 

Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith 
unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee ? mine 
hour is not yet come." 

I have carefully read the comments on this passage, 
which different writers of the Roman Catholic commu- 
nion have recommended for the adoption of the faith- 
ful, and I desire not to make any remarks upon them. 
Let the passage be interpreted in any way which en- 
lightened criticism and the analogy of Scripture will 
sanction, and I w r ould ask, after a careful weighing of 
this incident, the facts, and the words in all their bear- 
ings, would any unprejudiced mind expect that the 
holy and beloved person, towards whom the meek and 
tender and loving Jesus employed this address, was 
destined by that omniscient and omnipotent Saviour 
to be an object of those religious acts with which, as 
we shall soon be reminded, the Church of Rome now 
daily approaches her ? 

It is pain and grief to me thus to extract and to 
comment upon these passages of Holy Writ. The 
feelings of affection and of reverence approaching awe, 
with which I hold the memory of that blessed Virgin 
Mother of my Lord, raise in me a sincere repugnance 
against dwelling on this branch of our subject, beyond 
what the cause of the truth as it is in Jesus absolutely 
requires ; and very little more of the same irksome task 
awaits us. You will of course expect me to refer to 
an incident recorded with little variety of expression, 
and with no essential difference, by the first three 
Evangelists. St. Matthew's is the most full account, 
and is this, — 1 "While he yet talked to the people, 
behold his mother and his brethren stood without de- 
siring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, 

1 Matt. xii. 46. 



282 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, 
desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and 
said unto him that told him, Who is my mother, 
and who are my brethren ? And he stretched forth 
his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold my 
mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the 
will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my 
brother and sister and mother." Or, as St. Luke 1 ex- 
presses it, — " And he answered and said unto them, 
My mother and my brethren are these, who hear the 
word of God and do it." 

Humanly speaking, could a more favourable oppor- 
tunity have presented itself to our blessed Lord of 
referring to his beloved mother, in such a manner as 
to exalt her above her fellow daughters of Eve, — in 
such a manner too, as that Christians in after days, 
when the Saviour's bodily presence should have been 
taken away from them, and the extraordinary commu- 
nications of the Spirit of truth should have been with- 
drawn, might have remembered that He had spoken 
these things, and have been countenanced by his words 
in doing her homage ? But so far is this from the plain 
and natural tendency of the words of her blessed Son, 
that, had He of acknowledged purpose (and He has con- 
descended to announce to us, in another place 2 , the 
purpose of his words) wished to guard his disciples, 
whilst the world should last, against being seduced by 
any reverence and love which they might feel towards 
Himself into a belief that they ought to exalt his 
mother above all other created beings, and pay her 
holy worship, we know not what words He could have 
adopted more fitted for that purpose. There was no- 
thing in the communication which seemed to call for 

1 Luke viii. 21. » 2 John xiii. 19, &c. 



CHAP. I.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 283 

such a remark. A plain message announces to Him 
as a matter of fact one of the most common occur- 
rences of daily life. And yet He fixes upon the cir- 
cumstance as the groundwork not only of declaring 
the close union which it was his good pleasure should 
exist between obedient and true believers and Himself, 
but of cautioning all against any superstitious feelings 
towards those who were nearly allied to Him by the ties 
of his human nature. With reverence I would say, 
it is as though He desired to record his foreknowledge 
of the errors into which his disciples were likely to be 
seduced, and warned them beforehand to shun and 
resist the temptation. The evidence , borne by this 
passage against our offering any religious worship to 
the Virgin, on the ground of her having been the 
mother of our Lord, seems clear, strong, direct, and 
inevitable. She was the mother of the Redeemer of 
the world, and blessed is she among women ; but that 
very Redeemer Himself, with his own lips, assures us 
that every faithful servant of his heavenly Father shall 
be equally honoured with her, and possess all the pri- 
vileges which so near and dear a relationship with 
Himself might be supposed to convey. — Who is my 
mother? Or, w r ho are my brethren? Behold my 
mother and my brethren ! Whosoever shall do the 
will of my Father in heaven, the same is my brother, 
and my sister, and my mother. 

No less should we be expected in this place to take 
notice of that most remarkable passage of Holy Scrip- 
ture ', in which our blessed Lord is recorded under dif- 
ferent circumstances to have expressed the same senti- 
ments, but in words which will appear to many even 
more strongly indicative of his- desire to prevent any 

1 Luke xi. 27. 



284 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

undue exaltation of his mother. " As he spake these 
things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her 
voice and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that 
bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked." On 
the truth or wisdom of that exclamation our Lord 
makes no remark ; He refers not to his mother at all, 
not even to assure them (as St. Augustine l in after-ages 
taught), that however blessed Mary was in her corpo- 
real conception of the Saviour, yet far more blessed 
was she because she had fully borne Him spiritually in 
her heart. He alludes not to his mother except for 
the purpose of instantly drawing the minds of his 
hearers from contemplating any supposed blessedness 
in her, and of fixing them on the sure and greater 
blessedness of his true, humble, faithful, and obedient 
disciples, to the end of time. " But he said, Yea, 
rather [or, as some prefer, yea, verily, and] blessed are 
they that hear the word of God, and keep it." Again, 
it must be asked, could such an exclamation have been 
met by such a reply, had our Lord's will been to exalt 
his mother, as she is now exalted by the Church of 
Rome? Rather, we would reverently ask, would He 
have given this turn to such an address, had He not 
desired to check any such feeling towards her ? 

That most truly affecting and edifying incident re- 
corded by St. John as having taken place whilst Jesus 
was hanging in his agony on the cross, an incident which 
speaks to every one who has a mind to understand and 
a heart to feel, presents to us the last occasion on which 
the name of the Virgin Mother of our Lord occurs in the 
Gospels. No paraphrase could add force, or clearness, 
or beauty to the simple narrative of the Evangelist ; no 
exposition could bring out its parts more prominently or 

1 See De Sacy, vol. xxxii. p. 35. 



CHAP. I.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 285 

afFeetingly. The calmness and authority of our blessed 
Lord, his tenderness and affection, his filial love in 
the very midst of his agony, it is impossible to describe 
with more heart-stirring and heart-soothing pathos than 
is conveyed in the simple language of him whom the 
Saviour at that awful hour addressed, as He committed 
his mother to him of especial trust. But not one syl- 
lable falls from the lips of Christ, or from the pen of 
the beloved disciple, who records this act of his blessed 
Master's filial piety, which can by possibility be con- 
strued to imply, that our blessed Lord intended Mary 
to be held in such honour by his disciples, as would be 
shown in the offering of prayer and praise to her after 
her dissolution. He who could by a word, rather by 
the mere motion of his will, have bidden the whole 
course of nature and of providence, so to proceed as 
that all its operations should provide for the health 
and safety, the support and comfort of his mother — 
He, when He was on the cross, and when He was on 
the point of committing his soul into the hands of 
his Father, leaves her to the care of one whom He 
loved, and whose sincerity and devotedness to Him He 
had, humanly speaking, long experienced. He bids 
him treat Mary as his own mother, He bids Mary look 
to John as to her own son for support and solace: 
1 " Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, 
and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and 
Mary Magdalene. When Jesus, therefore, saw his 
mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he 
saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son ; then 
saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother." And 
He added no more. If Christ willed that his beloved 
mother should end her days in peace, removed equally 

1 John xix. 25. 



286 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

from want and the desolation of widowhood on the one 
hand, and from splendour and notoriety on the other, 
nothing could be more natural than such conduct in 
such a Being at such a time. But if his purpose was to 
exalt her into an object of religious adoration, that 
nations should kneel before her, and all people do her 
homage, then the words and the conduct of our Lord 
at this hour seem altogether unaccountable: and so 
would the words of the Evangelist also be, " And from 
that hour that disciple took her unto his own home." 

After this not another word falls from the pen of St. 
John which can be made to bear on the station, the 
character, the person, or circumstances of Mary. After 
his resurrection our Saviour remained on earth forty 
days before He finally ascended into heaven. Many of 
his interviews and conversations with his disciples dur- 
ing that interval are recorded in the Gospel. Every 
one of the four Evangelists relates some act or some 
saying of our Lord on one or more of those occasions. 
Mention is made by name of Mary Magdalene, of Mary 
[the mother] of Joses, of Mary [the mother] of James, 
of Salome, of Joanna, of Peter, of Cleophas, of the dis- 
ciple whom Jesus loved, at whose house the mother of 
our Lord then was; of Thomas, of Nathanael. The 
eleven also are mentioned generally. But by no one 
of the Evangelists is reference made at all to Mary 
the mother of our Lord, as having been present at any 
one of those interviews ; her name is not alluded to 
throughout. 

On one solitary occasion subsequently to the ascen- 
sion of Christ, mention is made of Mary his mother, in 
company with many others, and without any further 
distinction to separate her from the re'st 1 : " And when 

1 Acts i. 13. 



CHAP. I.] HOLY SCRIPTURE. 287 

they were come in (from having witnessed' the ascen- 
sion of our Saviour), they went up into an upper room, 
where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and 
Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew and Mat- 
thew, James the son of Alphseus, and Simon Zelotes, 
and Judas the brother of James. These all continued 
with one accord in prayer and supplication with the 
women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his 
brethren." Not one word is said of Mary having been 
present to witness even the ascension of her blessed Son; 
we read no command of our Lord, no wish expressed, no 
distant intimation to his disciples that they should even 
show to her marks of respect and honour ; not an allusion 
is there made to any superiority or distinction and pre- 
eminence. Sixty years at the least are generally con- 
sidered to be comprehended within the subsequent 
history of the New Testament before the Apocalypse 
was written ; but neither in the narrative, nor in the 
Epistles, nor yet in the prophetic part of the Holy 
Book, is there the most distant allusion to Mary. Of 
him to whose loving care our dying Lord committed his 
beloved mother of especial trust, we hear much. John, 
we find, putting forth the miraculous power of Christ at 
the Beautiful Gate of the Temple ; we find him impri- 
soned and arraigned before the Jewish authorities ; but 
not one word is mentioned as to what meanwhile 
became of Mary. We find John confirming the Church 
in Samaria ; we find him an exile in the island of Pat- 
mos ; but no mention is made of Mary. Nay, though 
we have three of his epistles, and the second of them 
addressed to one " whom he loved in the truth," we find 
neither from the tongue nor from the pen of St. John, 
one single allusion to the mother of our Lord alive or 
dead. And then, whatever may have been the matter 



288 EVIDENCE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. [PART III. 

of fact as to St. Paul, neither the many letters of that 
Apostle, nor the numerous biographical incidents re- 
corded of him, intimate in the most remote degree that 
he knew any thing whatever concerning her individually. 
St. Paul does indeed refer to the human nature of Christ 
derived from his human mother, and had he been taught 
by his Lord to entertain towards her such sentiments as 
the Roman Church now professes to entertain, he could 
not have had a more inviting occasion to give utterance 
to them. But instead of thus speaking of the Virgin 
Mary, he does not even mention her name or state at 
all, but refers only in the most general way to her 
nature and her sex as a daughter of Adam : " But 
when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his 
Son, made of a woman, made under the law ; to redeem 
them that were under the Law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons '." From a time certainly within 
a few days of our Saviour's ascension the Scriptures are 
totally silent throughout as to Mary, whether in life or 
in death. 

Here we might well proceed to contrast this view 
which the Scriptures of eternal truth give of the blessed 
Virgin Mary with the authorized and appointed wor- 
ship of that branch of the Christian Church which is 
in communion with Rome. We must first, however, 
here also examine the treasures of Christian antiquity, 
and ascertain what witness the earliest uninspired 
records bear on this immediate point. 

1 Gal. iv. 4. 



PART IIL— CHAPTER II. 



EVIDENCE OF PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 

Closing the inspired volume, and seeking at the foun- 
tain-head for the evidence of Christian .antiquity, what 
do we find ? For upwards of three centuries and a half 
(the limit put to our present inquiry) we discover in no 
author, Christian or heathen, any trace whatever of the 
invocation of the Virgin Mary by Catholic Christians. 
I have examined every passage which I have found 
adduced by writers of the Church of Rome, and have 
searched for any other passages which might appear to 
deserve consideration as bearing favourably on their 
view of the subject ; and the worship of the Virgin, such 
as is now insisted upon by the Council of Trent, pre- 
scribed by the Roman ritual, and practised in the Church 
of Rome, is proved by such an examination to have had 
neither name, nor place, nor existence among the early 
Christians. Forgive my importunity if I again and again 
urge you to join us in weighing these facts well ; and 
to take- your view of them from no advocate on the one 
side or the other. Search the Scriptures for yourselves, 
search the earliest writers for yourselves, and for your- 
selves search with all diligence into the authentic and 
authorized liturgies of your own Church, your missals, 
and breviaries, and formularies. Hearsay evidence, tes- 

u 



290 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

timony taken at second or third hand, vague rumours 
and surmises will probably expose us, on either side, to 
error. Let well-sifted genuine evidence be brought by 
an upright and an enlightened mind to bear on the 
point at issue, and let the issue joined be this, Is the 
practice of praying to the Virgin, and praising her, in 
the language of the prayers and praises now used in 
the prescribed formularies of the Roman Church, pri- 
mitive, Catholic, Apostolical? 

I am aware that among those who adhere to the 
Tridentine Confession of faith, there are many on whom 
this investigation will not be allowed to exercise any 
influence. 

The sentiments of Huet, wherever they are adopted, 
would operate to the total rejection of such inquiries 
as we are instituting in this work. His words on the 
immaculate conception of the Virgin are of far wider 
application than the immediate occasion on which he 
used them, "That the blessed Mary never conceived 
any sin in herself is in the present day an established 
principle of the Church, and confirmed by the Council 
of Trent. In which it is our duty to acquiesce, rather 
than in the dicta of the ancients, if any seem to think 
otherwise, among whom must be numbered Origen 1 ." 

In this address, however, we take for granted that 
the reader is open to conviction, desirous of arriving at 
the truth, and, with that view, ready to examine and 
sift the evidence of primitive antiquity. 

In that investigation our attention is very soon called 
to the remarkable fact, that, whereas in the case of the 
invocation of saints and angels, the defenders of that 
doctrine and practice bring forward a great variety of 
passages, in which mention is supposed to be made of 
1 Origen's Works, vol. iv. part 2, p. 156. 



CHAP. II.] PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 291 

those beings as objects of honour and reverential 
and grateful remembrance, the passages quoted with a 
similar view, as regards the Virgin Mary, are very few 
indeed : whilst the passages which intimate that the 
early Christians paid her no extraordinary honour 
(certainly not more than we of the Anglican Church do 
now) are innumerable. 

I have thought that it might be satisfactory here to 
refer to each separately of those earliest writers, whose 
testimony we have already examined on the general 
question of the invocation of saints and angels, and, 
as nearly as may be, in the same order. 

In the former department of our investigation we 
first endeavoured to ascertain the evidence of those five 
primitive writers, who are called the Apostolical Fathers; 
and, with regard to the subject now before us, the result 
of our inquiry into the same works is this : 

1. In the Epistle ascribed to Barnabas we find no 
allusion to Mary. 

2. The same must be affirmed of the book called The 
Shepherd of Hermas. 

3. In Clement of Rome, who speaks of the Lord 
Jesus having descended from Abraham according to the 
flesh, no mention is made of that daughter of Abraham 
of whom he was born. 

4. Ignatius l , in a passage already quoted, speaks of 
Christ both in his divine and human nature as Son of 
God and man, and he mentions the name of Mary, but 
it is without any adjunct or observation whatever, " both 
of Mary and of God." In another place he speaks of 
her virgin state, and the fruit of her womb ; and of her 
having borne our God Jesus the Christ ; but he adds no 

1 Ad Eph. vii. p. 13 and 16. 

u.2 



292 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

more ; not even calling her " The blessed," or " The 
Virgin." In the interpolated Epistle to the Ephesians, 
the former passage adds " the Virgin " after " Mary," 
but nothing more. 

5. In the Epistle of Polycarp we find an admonition 
to virgins \ how they ought to walk with a spotless and 
chaste conscience, but there is no allusion to the Virgin 
Mary. 

Justin Martyr. In this writer I do not find any 
passage so much in point as the following, in which we 
discover no epithet expressive of honour, or dignity, or 
exaltation, though it refers to Mary in her capacity of 
the Virgin mother of our Lord : — " He therefore calls 
Himself the Son of Man, either from his birth of a 
virgin, who was of the race of David, and Jacob, and 
Isaac, and Abraham, or because Abraham himself was 
the father of those persons enumerated, from whom 
Mary drew her origin 2 ." And a little below he adds, 
" For Eve being a virgin and incorrupt, having received 
the word from the serpent, brought forth transgression 
and death ; but Mary the Virgin having received faith 
and joy (on the angel Gabriel announcing to her the 
glad tidings, that the Spirit of the Lord should come 
upon her, and the power of the Highest overshadow her) 
answered, Be it unto me according to thy word. And 
of her was born He of whom we have shown that so 
many Scriptures have been spoken ; He by whom God 
destroys the serpent, and angels and men resembling 
[the serpent] ; but works a rescue from death for such 
as repent of evil and believe in Him." One more pas- 
sage will suffice 3 , "And according to the command of 
God, Joseph, taking Him with Mary, went into Egypt." 

1 Page 186. 2 Trypho, § 100. p. 195. 

3 Trypho, § 102. p. 196. 



CHAP. II.] PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 293 

Among those " Questions " to which we have referred 
under the head of Justin Martyr's works, but which are 
confessedly of a much less remote date, probably of the 
fifth century, an inquiry is made, How could Christ be 
free from blame, who so often set at nought his parent ? 
The answer is, that He did not set her at nought ; that 
He honoured her in deed, and would not have hurt 
her by his words ;- — but then the respondent adds, that 
Christ chiefly honoured Mary in that view of her ma- 
ternal character, under which all who heard the word 
of God and kept it, were his brothers and sisters and 
mother; and that she surpassed all women in virtue ! . 

Iren^us. To the confused passage relied upon by 
Bellarmin, in which Irenaeus is supposed to represent 
Mary as the advocate of Eve, we have already fully 
referred 2 . In that passage there is no allusion to any 
honour paid, or to be paid to her, nor to any invocation 
of her. In every passage to which my attention has 
been drawn, Irenaeus speaks of the mother of our Lord 
as Mary, or the Virgin, without any adjunct, or term of 
reverence. 

Clement 3 of Alexandria speaks of the Virgin, and 
refers to an opinion relative to her virgin-state, but 
without one word of honour. 

Tertullian 4 . The passages in which this ancient 
writer refers to the mother of our Lord are very far from 
countenancing the religious worship now paid to her by 
Roman Catholics : " The brothers of the Lord had not 
believed on him, as it is contained in the Gospel pub- 



1 Qu. 136. p. 500. 2 Page 120 of this work. 

3 Stromat. vii. 16. p. 889. 

4 Paris, 1675. De carne Christi, vii. p. 315. De Monogamia, 
vii. p. 529. N. B. Both these treatises were probably written after 
he became a Montanist. 



294 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

lished before Marcion. His mother likewise is not 
shown to have adhered to him ; whereas others, Marys 
and Marthas, were frequently in his company 1 ." And he 
tells us that Christ was brought forth by a virgin, who 
was also about to be married once after the birth, that 
the two titles of sanctity might be united in Christ by 
a mother who was both a virgin and also once married 2 . 

Origen thus speaks: "Announcing to Zacharias the 
birth of John, and to Mary the advent of our Saviour 
among men V In his eighth homily on Leviticus, he 
refers to Mary as a pure Virgin 4 . In the forged wort 
of later times, the writer, speaking of our Saviour, says, 
" He had on earth an immaculate and chaste mother, 
this much blessed Virgin Mary 5 ." 

In Cyprian we do not find one word expressive of 
honour or reverence towards the Virgin Mary. Nor is 
her name mentioned in the letter of his correspondent 
Firmilian, Bishop of Cappadocia. 

Lactantius speaks of " a holy virgin 6 " chosen for 
the work of Christ, but not one other word of honour, 
or tending to adoration ; though whilst dwelling on the 
incarnation of the Son of God, had he or his fellow- 
believers paid religious honour to her, he could scarcely 
have avoided all allusion to it. 

Eusebius speaks of the Virgin Mary, but is altogether 
silent as to any religious honour of any kind being due 
to her. In the Oration of the Emperor Constantino (as 
it is recorded by Eusebius), direct mention is made of 
the " chaste virginity," and of the maid who was mother 

1 See Tert. Decarne Cbristi, c. 7. (p. 364. De Sacy, 29. 439.) 

2 On the works once ascribed to Methodius, but now pronounced 
to be spurious, see above, p. 131. 

3 Comment on John, § 24. vol. iv. p. 82. 4 Vol. ii. p. 228. 
Horn. iii. in Diversos. 6 Vol. i. p. 299. 



CHAP. II.] PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 295 

of God, and yet remained a virgin. But the object 
present to the author's mind was so exclusively God 
manifest in the flesh, that he does not throughout even 
mention the name of Mary, or allude to any honour 
paid or due to her \ 

Athanasius, bent ever on establishing the perfect 
divinity and humanity of Christ, thus speaks 2 : " The 
general scope of Holy Scripture is to make a twofold 
announcement concerning the Saviour, that He was 
always God, and is a Son; being the Word and the 
brightness and wisdom of the Father, and that He 
afterwards became man for us, taking flesh of the 
Virgin Mary, who bare God 3 ." 

The work which we have already examined, called 
The Apostolical Constitutions, compiled probably about 
the commencement of the fourth century, cannot be 
read without leaving an impression clear and powerful 
on the mind, that no religious honour was paid to 
the Virgin Mary at the time when they were written ; 
certainly not more than is now cheerfully paid to her 
memory by us of the Anglican Church. Take, for 
example, the prayer prescribed to be used on the 
appointment of a Deaconess ; the inference from it 
must be, that others with whom the Lord's Spirit had 
dwelt, were at least held in equal honour with Mary : 
4 " O Eternal God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
Maker of male and female, who didst fill with thy Spirit 
Miriam, and Hannah, and Holda, and didst not disdain 
that thy Son should be born of a woman," &c. Thus, 

1 Cantab. 1720. § 11. p. 689. and § 19. p. 703. 

2 Athan. Orat. iii. Cont. Arian. p. 579. 

3 rrjg Qeotokov. Deiparae. 

4 Book viii. c. 20. 



296 EVIDENCE OF [PART III. 

too, in another passage 1 , Mary is spoken of just as other 
women who had the gift of prophecy ; and of her equally 
and in conjunction with the others it is said, that they 
were not elated by the gift, nor lifted themselves up 
against the men. " But even have women prophesied ; 
in ancient times Miriam, the sister of Aaron and Moses ; 
after her Deborah ; and afterwards Hulclah and Judith ; 
one under Josiah, the other under Darius ; and the 
mother of the Lord also prophesied, and Elizabeth her 
kinswoman ; and Anna ; and in our day the daughters 
of Philip; yet they were not lifted up against the men, 
but observed their own measure. Therefore among you 
also should any man or woman have such a grace, let 
them be humble, that God may take pleasure in them." 

In the Apostolical Canons I find no reference to Mary; 
nor indeed any passage bearing on our present inquiry, 
except the last clause of all, containing the benediction. 
In this passage not only is the prayer for spiritual bless- 
ings addressed to God alone, but it is offered exclusively 
through the mediation of Christ alone, without alluding 
to intercessions of angels, saints, or the Virgin : " Now 
may God, the only unproduced Being, the Creator of 
all things, unite you all by peace in the Holy Ghost; 
make you perfect unto every good work, not to be 
turned aside, unblameable, not deserving reproof; and 
may He deem you worthy of eternal life with us, by the 
mediation of his beloved Son Jesus Christ our God and 
Saviour: with whom be glory to Him the Sovereign 
God and Father, in the Holy Ghost the Comforter, now 
and ever, world without end. Amen 2 ." 

I have not intentionally omitted any ancient author 

1 Book viii. c. 2. 2 Vol. i. p. 450. 



CHAP. II.] PRIMITIVE WRITERS. 297 

falling within the limits of our present inquiry, nor 
have I neglected any one passage which I could find 
bearing testimony to any honour paid to the Virgin. 
The result of my research is, that I have not discovered 
one solitary expression which implies that religious in- 
vocation and honour, such as is now offered to Mary by 
the Church of Rome, was addressed to her by the 
members of the primitive Catholic Church. 



PART III.— CHAPTER III. 



THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 

By the Church of England, two festivals are observed 
in grateful commemoration of two events relating to 
Mary as the mother of our Lord : — the announcement 
of the Saviour's birth by the message of an angel, 
called, " The Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary," 
and " The Presentation of Christ in the Temple," called 
also, " The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin." In 
the service for the first of these solemnities, we are 
taught to pray that, as we have known the incarnation 
of the Son of God by the message of an angel, so by 
his Cross and Passion we may. be brought to the glory 
of his resurrection. In the second, we humbly beseech 
the Divine Majesty that, as his only-begotten Son was 
presented in the Temple in the substance of our flesh, 
so we may be presented unto Him with pure and clean 
hearts by the same, his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 
These days are observed to commemorate events de- 
clared to us on the most sure warrant of Holy Scrip- 
ture ; and these prayers are primitive and evangelical. 
They pray only to God for spiritual blessings through 
his Son. The second prayer was used in the Church 



THE ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 299 

from very early times, and is still retained in the Roman 
Breviary 1 ; whereas, instead of the first c , we find there 
unhappily a prayer now supplicating that those who 
offer it, "believing Mary to be truly the Mother of 
God, might be aided by her intercessions with Him 3 ." 

In the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, 
feasts are observed to the honour of the Virgin Mary, 
in which the Anglican Church cannot join ; such as the 
Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and the immaculate concep- 
tion of her by her mother. On the origin and nature of 
these feasts it is not my intention to dwell. I can only ex- 
press my regret, that by appointing a service and a collect 
commemorative of the Conception of .the Virgin 4 in 
her mother's womb, and praying that the observance of 
that solemnity may procure the votaries an increase of 
peace, the Church of Rome has given countenance to 
a superstition, against which at its commencement, so 
late as the 12th century 5 , St. Bernard strongly remon- 
strated, in an epistle to the monks of Lyons ; a super- 
stition which has been supported and explained by 
discussions in no way profitable to the head or the 
heart. 

Of all these institutions however in honour of the 
Virgin, the Feast of the assumption appears to be as 
it were the crown and the consummation 6 . This festival 

1 Hus. Brev. Rom. H. 536. 

2 This collect also is found in the Roman Missal, as a Prayer 
at the Post Communion ; though it does not appear in the Brevi- 
arium Romanum. 

3 V. 496. 

4 Ut quibus beatee Virginis partus exstitit salutis exordium, con- 
ceptionis ejus votiva solemnitas pacis tribuat incrementum. H. 445. 

5 Epist. 174. Paris, 1632, p. 1538. 

" The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the greatest of all the 
festivals which the Church celebrates in her honour. It is the con- 
summation of all the other great mysteries by which her life was ren- 



300 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

is kept to celebrate the miraculous taking up (assumptio) 
of the Virgin Mary into heaven. And its celebration, 
in Roman Catholic countries, is observed in a manner 
worthy a cause to which our judgment would give de- 
liberately its sanction ; in which our feelings would 
safely and with satisfaction rest on the firmness of our 
faith ; from joining in which a truly pious mind would 
have no ground for inward misgiving, nor for the aspi- 
ration, Would it were founded in truth ! 

Before such a solemn office of praise and worship 
were ever admitted among the institutions of the reli- 
gion of truth, its originators and compilers should have 
built upon sure grounds ; careful too should they also 
be who now join in the service, and so lend it the 
countenance of their example ; more especially should 
those sift the evidence well, who, by their doctrine and 
writings, uphold, and defend, and advance it; lest they 
prove at the last to love Rome rather than the truth 
as it is in Jesus. So solemn, so marked, a religious 
service in the temples and at the altar of Him who is 
the truth, a service so exalted above his fellows, ought 
beyond question to be founded on the most sure war- 
rant of Holy Scripture, or at the least on undisputed 
historical evidence, as to the alleged matter of fact on 
which it is built, — the certain, acknowledged, uninter- 
rupted, and universal testimony of the Church Catholic 
from the very time. They incur a momentous respon- 
sibility who aid in propagating for religious truths the 
inventions of men \ 

dered most wonderful. It is the birthday of her true greatness and 
glory, and the crown of all the virtues of her whole life, which we 
admire single in her other festivals." Alban Butler, vol. viii. p. 175. 
1 Very different opinions are held by Roman Catholic writers as 
to the antiquity of this feast. All, jndeed, maintain that it is of very 
ancient introduction ; but whilst some, with Lambecius (lib. viii. 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 301 

But what is the real state of the case with regard to 
the fact of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary? It 
rests (as we shall soon see) on no authentic history ; it 
is supported by no primitive tradition. I profess my 
surprise to have been great, when I found the most 
celebrated defenders of the Roman Catholic cause, 
instead of citing such evidence as would bear with it 
even the appearance of probability, appealing to his- 
tories written more than a thousand years after the 
alleged event, to forged documents and vague rumours. 
I was willing to doubt the sufficiency of my research ; 
till I found its defenders, instead of alleging and esta- 
blishing by evidence what God was by them said to 
have done, contenting themselves with asserting his 
omnipotence, in proof that the doctrine implied no 
impossibility ; dwelling on the fitness and reasonable- 
ness of his working such a miracle in the honour of her 
who was chosen to be the mother of his eternal Son ; 
and whilst they took the fact as granted, substituting 
for argument glowing and fervent descriptions of what 
might have been the joy in heaven, and what ought to 
be the feelings of mortals on earth. 

At every step of the inquiry into the merits of this 
case, the principle recurs to the mind, that, as men 
really and in earnest looking onward to a life after 
this, our duty is to ascertain to the utmost of our 

p. 286), maintain the antiquity of the festival to be so remote, that 
its origin cannot be traced ; and thence infer that it was instituted by 
a silent and unrecorded act of the Apostles themselves ; others 
(among whom Kollarius, the learned annotator on the opinion of 
Lambecius) acknowledged, that it was introduced by an ordinance of 
.the Church, though not at the same time in all countries of Christen- 
dom. That annotator assigns its introduction at Rome to the fourth 
century ; at Constantinople to the sixth ; in Germany and France to 
the ninth. 



302 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

power, not what God could do, not what we or others 
might pronounce it fit that God should do, but what 
He has done; not what would be agreeable to our 
feelings, were it true, but what, whether agreeably or 
adversely to our feelings or wishes, is proved to be 
true. The very moment a Christian writer refers me 
from evidence to possibilities, I feel that he knows not 
the nature of Christianity; he throws me back from 
the sure and certain hope of the Gospel to the " beau- 
tiful fable" of Socrates, — " It were better to be there 
than here, if these things are true." 

But let us inquire into the facts of the case. 

First, I would observe that it is by no means agreed 
among all who have written upon the subject, what was 
the place, or what was the time of the Virgin's death. 
Whilst some have maintained that she breathed her 
last at Ephesus, the large majority assert that her de- 
parture from this world took place at Jerusalem. And 
as to the time of her death, some have assigned it to the 
year 48 of the Christian era, about the time at which 
Paul and Barnabas (as we read in Holy Scripture) 
returned to Antioch ; whilst others refer it to a later 
date. I am not, however, aware of any supposition 
which fixes it at a period subsequent to that at which 
the canon of Scripture closes. Epiphanius l indeed, 
towards the close of the fourth century, reminding us 
that Scripture is totally and purely silent on the subject 
as well of Mary's death and burial, as of her having 
accompanied St. John in his travels or not, without 
alluding to any tradition as to her assumption, thus 
sums up his sentiments : " I dare to say nothing ; but 
considering it, I observe silence." 

1 Epiph. vol. i. p. 1043. 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 303 

Should auy of my readers have deliberately adopted 
as the rule of their faith the present practice of the 
Church of Rome, I cannot hope that they will take any 
interest in the following inquiry; but I have been assured, 
by most sensible and well-informed members of that 
Church, that there is a very general desire entertained 
to have this and other questions connected with our 
subject examined without prejudice, and calmly placed 
before them. To such persons I trust this chapter may 
not appear altogether unworthy of their consideration. 
Those who would turn from it on the principle to 
which we have here alluded, will find themselves very 
closely responding to the sentiments professed by St. 
Bernard, "Exalt her who is exalted above the choirs 
of angels to the heavenly kingdom. These things the 
Church sings to me of her, and has taught me to sing 
the same to others. For my part, what I have received 
from it, I am secure in holding and delivering ; which 
also, I confess, I am not over-scrupulous in admit- 
ting ! 4 I have received in truth from the Church that 
that day is to be observed with the highest veneration 
on which she was taken up (assumpta) from this 
wicked world, and carrying Avith her into heaven feasts 
of the most celebrated joys V 

Let us then, with the authorized and enjoined ser- 
vice of the Church of Rome for the 15th of August 
before us. examine the evidence on which that reli- 

1 Quod non scrupulosius fateor admiserim. 

2 See Lambecius, book viii. p. 286. The letter of St. Bernard is 
addressed to the Canons of Lyons on the Conception of the holy 
Mary. Paris, 1632, p. 1538. His observations in that letter, with 
a view of discountenancing the rising superstition, in juxtaposition 
with these sentiments, are well deserving the serious consideration of 
every one. 



304 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART II L 

gious service, the most solemn consummation of all the 
rest, is founded. 

In the service of the Assumption, more than twice 
seven times is it reiterated in a very brief space, and 
with slight variations of expression, that Mary was 
taken up into heaven; and that, not on any general 
and indefinite idea of her beatific and glorified state, 
but with reference to one specific single act of divine 
favour, performed at a fixed time, effecting her assump- 
tion, as it is called, "to-day 1 ." "To-day Mary the 
Virgin ascended the heavens. Rejoice, because she is 
reigning with Christ for ever." " Mary the Virgin 
is taken up into heaven, to the ethereal chamber in 
which the King of kings sits on his starry throne." 
" The holy mother of God hath been exalted above 
the choirs of angels to the heavenly realms." " Come, 
let us worship the King of kings, to whose ethereal 
heaven the Virgin Mother was taken up to-day." And 
that it is her bodily ascension, her corporeal assump- 
tion into heaven, and not merely the transit of her 
soul 2 from mortal life to eternal bliss, which the Roman 
Church maintains and propagates by this service, is put 
beyond doubt by the service itself. In the fourth and 
sixth reading 3 , or lesson, for example, we find these 



1 Ms. 595. 

2 Lambecius, indeed (book viii. p. 306), distinctly affirms, that one 
object which the Church had in view was to condemn the heresy 
of those who maintain that the reception of the Virgin into heaven, 
was the reception of her soul only, and not also of her body. " Ut 
damnet eorum hseresin qui sanctissirrise Dei genetricis receptionem 
in ccelum ad animam ipsius tantum,'non vero simul etiam ad corpus 
pertinere existiraant." 

3 Non reversa est in terram, sed ... in ccelestibus tabernaculis 
collocatum. Quomodo mors devoraret, quomodo inferi susciperent, 






CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 305 

sentences: — "She returned not into the earth, but is 
seated in the heavenly tabernacles." " How could 
death devour, how could those below receive, how 
could corruption invade, that body, in which life was 
received? For it a direct, plain, and easy path to 
heaven was prepared." 

Now, on what authority does this doctrine rest? On 
what foundation stone is this religious worship built? 
The holy Scriptures are totally and profoundly silent, 
as to the time, the place, the manner of Mary's death. 
Once after the ascension of our Lord, and that within 
eight days, we find mentioned the name of Mary pro- 
miscuously with others ; after that, no allusion is made 
to her in life or in death ; and no account, as far as I can 
find, places her death too late for mention to have been 
made of it in the Acts of the Apostles. The historian, 
Nicephorus Callistus, refers it to the 5th year of Clau- 
dius, that is about a.d. 47 : after which period, events 
through more than fifteen years are recorded in that 
book of sacred Scripture. 

But closing the holy volume, what light does primi- 
tive antiquity enable us to throw on this subject ? 

The earliest testimony quoted by the defenders of the 
doctrine, that Mary was at her death taken up bodily 
into heaven, is a supposed entry in the Chronicon of 
Eusebius, opposite the year of our Lord 48. This is 
cited by Coccius without any remark •; and even Baro- 
nius rests the date of Mary's assumption upon this tes- 
timony \ The words referred to are these, — " Mary the 
Virgin, the mother of Jesus, was taken up into heaven ; 
as some write that it had been revealed to them." 

quomodo corruptio invaderit corpus illud in quo vita suscepta est ? 

Huic recta plana et facilis ad ccelum pafata est via. yEs. 603, 604. 

1 Vol. i. 403. 



306 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

Now, suppose for one moment that this came from 
the pen of Eusebius himself, to what does it amount ? 
A chronologist in the fourth century records that some 
persons, whom he does not name, not even stating 
when they lived, had written down, not what they had 
heard as matter of fact, or received by tradition, but 
that a revelation had been made to them of a fact 
alleged to have taken place nearly three centuries be- 
fore the time of that writer, But instead of this pas- 
sage deserving the name of Eusebius as its author, it 
is now on all sides acknowledged to be altogether a 
palpable interpolation. Suspicions, one would suppose, 
must have been at a very remote date suggested as to 
the genuineness of this sentence. Many manuscripts, 
especially the seven in the Vatican, were known to 
contain nothing of the kind ; and the Roman Catholic 
editor of the Chronicon 1 at Bordeaux, a.d 1604, tells us 
that he was restrained from expunging it, only because 
nothing certain as to the assumption of the Virgin 
could be substituted in its stead. Its spuriousness 
however can no longer be a question of dispute or 
doubt; it is excluded from the Milan edition of 1818, 
by Angelo Maio and John Zohrab ; and no trace of it is 
to be found in the Armenian 2 version, published by the 
monks of the Armenian convent at Venice, in 1818. 

The next authority, to which we are referred, is a 
letter 3 said to have been written by Sophronius the 

1 P. 566. 

2 The author visited that convent whilst this edition of the 
Chronicon of Eusebius was going through the press, and can testify 
to the apparent anxiety of the monks to make it worthy of the 
patronage of Christians. 

3 The letter is entitled " Ad Paulam et Eustochium de As- 
sumptione B. M. Virginis." It is found in the fifth volume of Je- 
rome's works, p. 82. Edit. Jo. Martian. 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 307 

presbyter, about the commencement of the fifth cen- 
tury. The letter used to be ascribed to Jerome ; Eras- 
mus referred it to Sophronius ; but Baronius says it 
was written "by an egregious forger of lies," (" egregius 
mendaciorum concinnator,") who lived after the here- 
sies of Nestorius and Eutyches had been condemned. 
I am not at all anxious to enter upon that point of 
criticism ; that the letter is of very ancient origin can- 
not be doubted. This document would lead us to con- 
clude, that so far from the tradition regarding the 
Virgin's assumption being general in the Church, it 
was a point of grave doubt and discussion among the 
faithful, many of whom thought it an a<?t of pious for- 
bearance to abstain altogether from pronouncing any 
opinion on the subject. Whoever penned the letter, and 
whether we look to the sensible and pious sentiments 
contained in it, or to its undisputed antiquity, the fol- 
lowing extract cannot fail to be interesting ! . 

" Many of our people doubt whether Mary was taken 
up together with her body, or went away, leaving the 
body. But how, or at what time, or by what persons 
her most holy body was taken hence, or whither re- 
moved, or whether it rose again, is not known ; although 
some will maintain that she is already revived, and is 
clothed with a blessed immortality with Christ in hea- 
venly places, which very many affirm also of the blessed 

1 Baronius shows great anxiety (Cologne, 1609, vol. i. p. 408) to 
detract from the value of this author's testimony, whoever he was ; 
sharply criticising him because he asserts, that the faithful in his time 
still expressed doubts as to the matter of fact of Mary's assumption. 
By assigning, however, to the letter a still later date than the works 
of Sophronius, Baronius adds strength to the arguments for the com- 
paratively recent origin of the tradition of her assumption. See 
Fabricius (Hamburgh, 1804), vol. ix. p. 160. 

x2 



308 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

John, the Evangelist, his servant, to whom being a 
virgin, the virgin was intrusted by Christ, because in 
his sepulchre, as it is reported, nothing is found but 
manna, which also is seen to flow forth. Nevertheless 
which of these opinions should be thought the more 
true we doubt. Yet it is better to commit all to God, 
to whom nothing is impossible, than to wish to define 
rashly J by our own authority any thing, which we do 
not approve of. ... . Because nothing is impossible 
with God, we do not deny that something of the kind 
was done with regard to the blessed Virgin Mary ; 
although for caution's sake (salva fide) preserving our 
faith, we ought rather with pious desire to think, than 
inconsiderately to define, what without danger may re- 
main unknown." This letter, at the earliest, was not 
written until the beginning of the fifth century. 

Subsequent writers were not wanting to fill up what 
this letter declares to have been at its own date un- 
known, as to the manner and time of Mary's assump- 
tion, and the persons employed in effecting it. The 
first authority appealed to in defence of the tradition 
relating to the assumption of the Virgin 2 , is usually 
cited as a well-known work written by Euthymius, who 
was contemporary with Juvenal, Archbishop of Jerusa- 
lem. And the testimony simply quoted as his, offers 
to us the following account of the miraculous transac- 
tion 3 : — 

" It has been above said, that the holy Pulcheria 

1 These last words, stamping the author's own opinion, " Which 
we do not approve of," are left out in the quotation of Coccius. 

2 Coccius heads the extract merely, with these words : " Euthumius 
Eremita Historise Ecclesiasticae, lib. iii. c. 40;" assigning the date 
a.d. 549. 

3 This version by Coccius differs in some points from the original. 
Jo. Dam, vol. ii. p. 879. 









CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 309 

built many churches to Christ at Constantinople. Of 
these, however, there is one which was built in Bla- 
chernse, in the beginning of Marcian ['s reign'] of divine 
memory. These, therefore, namely, Marcian and Pul- 
cheria, when they had built a venerable temple to the 
greatly to be celebrated and most holy mother of God 
and ever Virgin Mary, and had decked it with all 
ornaments, sought her most holy body, which had con- 
ceived God. And having sent for Juvenal, Archbishop 
of Jerusalem, and the bishops of Palestine, who were 
living in the royal city on account of the synod then 
held at Chalcedon, they say to them, We hear that 
there is in Jerusalem the first and. famous Church 
of Mary, mother of God and ever Virgin, in the 
garden called Gethsemane, where her body which 
bore the Life was deposited in a coffin. We wish, 
therefore, her relics to be brought here for the protec- 
tion of this royal city." But Juvenal answered, " In 
the holy and divinely inspired Scripture, indeed, nothing 
is recorded of the departure of holy Mary, mother 
of God. But from an ancient and most true tradition 
we have received, that at the time of her glorious fall- 
ing asleep, all the holy Apostles who were going through 
the world for the salvation of the nations, in a moment 
of time borne aloft, came together at Jerusalem. And 
when they were near her, they had a vision of angels, 
and divine melody of the highest powers was heard: 
and thus with divine and more than heavenly glory, 
she delivered her holy soul into the hands of God in 
an unspeakable manner. But that which had con- 
ceived God being borne with angelic and apostolic 
psalmody, with funeral rites, was deposited in a coffin 
in Gethsemane. In this place the chorus and singing 
of the angels continued for three whole days. But 



310 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

after three days, on the angelic music ceasing, since 
one of the Apostles had been absent, and came after 
the third day, and wished to adore the body which had 
conceived God, the Apostles, who were present, opened 
the coffin ; but the body, pure and every way to be 
praised, they could not at all find. And when they 
found only those things in which it had been laid out 
and placed there, and were filled with an ineffable 
fragrancy proceeding from those things, they shut the 
coffin. Being astounded at the miraculous mystery, 
they could form no other thought, but that He, who 
in his own person had vouchsafed to be clothed with 
flesh, and to be made man of the most holy Virgin, and 
to be born in the flesh, God the Word, and Lord of 
Glory, and who after birth had preserved her virginity 
immaculate, had seen it good after she had departed 
from among the living, to honour her uncontaminated 
and unpolluted body by a translation before the com- 
mon and universal resurrection. 1 ' 

Such is the passage offered to us in its insulated 
form, as an extract from Euthymius. To be enabled, 
however, to estimate its worth, the inquirer must sub- 
mit to the labour of considerable research. He will not 
have pursued his investigation far, before he will find, 
that a thick cloud of uncertainty and doubt hangs over 
this page of ecclesiastical history. Not that the evi- 
dence alleged in support of the reputed miracle can 
leave us in doubt as to the credibility of the tradition ; 
for that tradition can scarcely be now countenanced by 
the most zealous and uncompromising maintainers of 
the assumption of the Virgin. What I would say is, 
that the question as to the genuineness and authenticity 
of the works by which the tradition is said to have been 
preserved, is far more difficult and complicated, than 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 3 1 1 

those writers must have believed, who appeal to such 
testimony without any doubt or qualification. The 
result of my own inquiries I submit to your candid 
acceptance. 

The earliest author in whose reputed writings I have 
found the tradition, is John Damascenus, a monk of 
Jerusalem, who nourished somewhat before the middle 
of the eighth century. The passage is found in the se- 
cond of three homilies on the " Sleep of the Virgin," a 
term generally used by the Greeks as an equivalent for 
the Latin word "Assumptio." The original publication 
of these homilies in Greek and Latin is comparatively 
of a late date. Lambecius, whose work is dated 1665, 
says he was not aware that any one had so published 
them before his time \ But not to raise the question 
of their genuineness, the preacher's introduction of this 
passage into his homily is preceded by a very remark- 
able section, affording a striking example of the manner 
in which Christian orators used to indulge in addresses 
and appeals not only to the spirits of departed men, but 
even to things which never had life. The speaker here 
in his sermon addresses the tomb of Mary, as though 
it had ears to hear, and an understanding to compre- 
hend ; and then represents the tomb as having a tongue 
to answer, and as calling forth from the preacher and 
his congregation an address of admiration and reverence. 
Such apostrophes as these cannot be. too steadily borne 
in mind, or too carefully weighed, when any argument 
is sought to be drawn from similar salutations offered 
by ancient Christian orators to saint, or angel, or the 
Virgin. 

1 Vol. viii. p. 281. 

Le Quien, who published them in 1712, refers to earlier homilies 
on the Dormitio Virginis. Jo. Damas. Paris, 1712. vol. ii. p. 857. 



312 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

The following are among the expressions in which 
the preacher, in the passage under consideration, ad- 
dresses the Virgin's tomb : " Thou, O Tomb, of holy 
things most holy (for I will address thee as a living 
being), where is the much desired and much beloved 
body of the mother of God 1 ?" The answer of the 
tomb begins thus, " Why seek ye her in a tomb, who 
has been taken up on high to the heavenly tabernacles?" 
In reply to this, the preacher first deliberating with his 
hearers what ansAver he should make, thus addresses 
the tomb 2 : " Thy grace indeed is never-failing and 
eternal," &c. By the maintainers of the invocation 
of saints, many a passage far less unequivocal and less 
cogent than this has been adduced to show, that saints 
and martyrs were invoked by primitive worshippers. 

We find John Damascenus thas introducing the 
passage of Euthymius, "Ye see, beloved fathers and 
brethren, what answer the all-glorious tomb makes to 
us; and that these things are so, in the Euthymiac 
History, the third book and fortieth chapter, is thus 
written word for word 3 ." 

Lambecius maintains, that the history here quoted 
by John Damascenus was not an ecclesiastical history, 
written by Euthymius, who died in a.d. 472, but a bio- 
graphical history concerning Euthymius himself, written 
by an ecclesiastic, whom he supposes to be Cyril, the 
monk, who died in a.d. 531. This opinion of Lambecius 
is combated by Cotelerius ; the discussion only adding 
to the denseness of the cloud which involves the whole 
tradition. But whether the work quoted had Euthy- 
mius for its author or its subject, the work itself is lost; 
and an epitome only of such a work has come down to 

1 Vol. ii. p. 875. 2 P. 881. 3 P. 877. 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 313 

our time. In that abridgment the passage quoted by 
Damascenus is not found. 

The editor of John Damascenus, Le Quien, in his 
annotations on this portion of his work, offers to us 
some very interesting remarks, which bear immediately 
on the agitated question as to the first observance of 
the feast of the Assumption, as well as on the tradition 
itself. Le Quien infers, from the words of Modestus, 
patriarch of Jerusalem, that scarcely any preachers 
before him had addressed their congregations on the 
departure of the Virgin out of this life; he thinks, 
moreover, that the Feast of the Assumption was at the 
commencement of the seventh century only recently 
instituted. Though all later writers affirm that the 
Virgin was buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat, in the 
garden of Gethsemane, the same editor says, that this 
could not have been known to Jerome, who passed a 
great part of his life in Bethlehem, and yet observes a 
total silence on the subject; though in his "Epitaph on 
Paula V' he enumerates all the places in Palestine con- 
secrated by any remarkable event. Neither, he adds, 
could it have been known to Epiphanius, who, though 
he lived long in Palestine, yet declares that nothing 
was known as to the death or burial of the Virgin 2 . 

Again, in his remarks upon the writings falsely 
attributed to Melito 3 , the same editor says, that since 
this Pseudo-Melito speaks many jejune things of the 
Virgin Mary, (such for example as at the approach of 
death h&- exceeding fear of being exposed to the wiles 
of Satan,) he concludes, from that circumstance, that 
the work was written before the Council of Ephesus ; 
alleging this very remarkable reason, that " after that 

1 Jerome, Paris, 1706. Vol. iv.' p. 670—688, ep. 86. 

2 Vol. ii. p. 858. 3 P. 880. 



314 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

time there began to be entertained, as was right, not 
only in the East, but also in the West, a far better 
estimate of the parent of God." 

Many of the remarks of this editor would appear to 
savour of prejudice had they come from the pen of one 
who denied the reality of the assumption, or oppugned 
the honour and worship now 7 paid by members of the 
Church of Rome to the Virgin. Nor could the suspicion 
of such prejudice be otherwise than increased by the in- 
sinuation which the same editor throws out against the 
honesty of Archbishop Juvenal, and on the possibility 
of his having invented the whole story, and so for 
sinister purposes deceived Marcian and Pulcheria ; just 
as he fabricated the writings which he forged for the 
purpose of securing the primacy of Palestine ; a crime 
laid to the charge of Juvenal by Leo the Great, in his 
letter to Maximus, Bishop of Antioch '. 

It is moreover much to be regretted that in making 
the extract from John Damascenus those who employ 
it as evidence of primitive belief, have not presented it 
to their readers whole and entire. In the present case 
the system of quoting garbled extracts is particularly 
to be lamented, because the paragraphs omitted in the 
quotation carry in themselves clear proof that Juve- 
nal's answer, as it now appears in John Damascenus, 
could not have been made by Juvenal to Marcian 
and Pulcheria. For in it is quoted from Dionysius 
the Areopagite by name, a passage still found in the 
works ascribed to him ; whereas by the judgment of 
the most learned Roman Catholic writers, those spuri- 
ous works did not make their appearance in Christen- 
dom till the beginning of the sixth century, fifty years 
after the Council of Chalcedon, to assist at which 
1 P. 879. See Leo. vol. i. p. 1215. Epist. cxix. 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 315 

Juvenal is said to have been present in Constantinople 
when the emperor and empress held the alleged con- 
versation with him. 

The remainder of the passage from the history of 
Euthymius, rehearsed in this oration of John Damas- 
cenus, is as follows : " There were present with the 
Apostles at that time both the most honoured Timothy 
the Apostle, and first bishop of the Ephesians, and 
Dionysius the Areopagite, himself, as the great Diony- 
sius testifies in the laboured words concerning the 
blessed Hierotheus, himself also then being present, to 
the above-named apostle Timothy, saying thus, Since 
with the inspired hierarchs themselves, when we also 
as thou knowest, and yourself, and many of our holy 
brethren had come together to the sight of the body 
which gave the principle of life ; and there was present 
too James the brother of the Lord ! , and Peter the chief 
and the most revered head of the apostles 2 ; then it 
seemed right, after the spectacle, that all the hierarchs 
(as each was able) should sing of the boundless good- 
ness of the divine power. After the apostles, as you 
know, he surpassed all the other sacred persons, wholly 
carried away, and altogether in an ecstasy, and feel- 
ing an entire sympathy with what was sung ; and by all 
by whom he was heard, and seen, and known (and he 3 
knew it not), he was considered to be an inspired and 
divine hymnologist. And why should I speak to you 
about the things there divinely said, for unless I have 
even forgotten myself, I know that T have often heard 
from you some portions also of those inspired canticles? 
And the royal personages having heard this, requested 
of Juvenal the archbishop, that the holy coffin, with the 

1 d£e\<podi.<)Q. 2 OeoXoyo)). 

3 This seems confused in the original (/ecu iywojaxero, nal ovk 
iynwoxe). The whole passage is involved in great obscurity. 



316 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PAKT III. 

clothes of the glorious and all-holy Mary, mother of 
God. sealed up, might be sent to them. And this, when 
sent, they deposited in the venerable temple of the 
Mother of God, built in Blachernae ; and these things 
were so." 

It is a fact no less lamentable than remarkable, that 
out of the lessons appointed by the Church of Rome 
for the feast of the Assumption, to be read to believers 
assembled in God's house of prayer, three of those 
lessons are selected and taken entirely from this very 
oration of John Damascenus \ 

This, then, is the account nearest to the time of 
the supposed event ; and yet can any thing be more 
vague, and by way of testimony, more worthless ? A 
writer near the middle of the sixth century refers to a 
conversation, said to have taken place in the middle of 
the fifth century ; in this reported conversation at Con- 
stantinople, the Bishop of Jerusalem is represented to 
have informed the Emperor and Empress of an ancient 
tradition, which was believed, concerning a miraculous 
event, said to have taken place nearly four hundred 
years before, that the body was taken out of a coffin 
without the knowledge of those who had deposited it 
there: Whilst the primitive and inspired account, record- 
ing most minutely the journeys and proceedings of some 
of those very persons, and the letters of others, makes 
no mention at all of any transaction of the kind ; and of 

1 The Fourth Lesson begins " Hodie sacra et animata area." 
The Fifth ,, ,, " Hodie virgo immaculata." 

The Sixth „ „ " Eva quae serpentis," &C.—JE. 603. 

These contain the passages to which we have before referred as fixing 
the belief of the Church of Rome to be in the corporeal assumption 
of Mary. " Quomodo corruptio invaderet corpus illud in quo vita 
suscepta est? nuQ dtcKpOopd rod (ujo^o^ov KaTaroXfJLrifreie aojfxarog ; " 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 317 

all the intermediate historians and ecclesiastical writers 
not one gives the slightest intimation that any rumour 
of it had reached them '. 

Another authority to which the writers on the 
assumption of the Virgin appeal, is that of Nicephorus 
Callistus, who, at the end of the thirteenth or the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth century, dedicated his work 
to Andronicus Paleeologus. The account given by Nice- 
phorus is this : 

In the fifth year of Claudius, the Virgin at the age 
of fifty-nine, was made acquainted with her approaching 
death. Christ himself then descended from heaven with 
a countless multitude of angels, to take up the soul of 
his mother; He summoned his disciples by thunder and 
storm from all parts of the world. The Virgin then 
bade Peter first, and afterwards the rest of the Apostles, 
to come with burning torches 2 . The Apostles surrounded 
her bed, and " an outpouring of miracles flowed forth." 
The blind beheld the sun, the deaf heard, the lame 
walked, and every disease fled away. The Apostles and 
others sang, as the coffin was borne from Sion to Geth- 
semane, angels preceding, surrounding, and following it. 

1 Baronius appears not to have referred to this history of Euthy- 
mius, but he refers to Nicephorus, and also to a work ascribed to 
Melito, c. 4, 5. Nicephorus, Paris, 1630. vol. i. p. 168. lib. h. c. 
21. Baronius also refers to lib. 15. c. 14. This Nicephorus was 
Patriarcli of Constantinople. He lived during the reign of our 
Edward the First, or Edward the Second, and cannot, therefore, be 
cited in any sense of the word as an ancient author writing on the 
events of the primitive ages ; though the manner in which his testi- 
mony is appealed to would imply, that he was a man to whose 
authority on early ecclesiastical affairs we were now expected to 
defer. 

2 This author here quotes the forged work ascribed to Dionysius 
the Areopagite, to which we have before referred. 



318 THE ASSUMPTION OF [PART III. 

A wonderful thing then took place. The Jews were 
indignant and enraged, and one more desperately bold 
than the rest rushed forward, intending to throw down 
the holy corpse to the ground. Vengeance was not 
tardy; for his hands were cut off from his arms'. The 
procession stopped ; and at the command of Peter, on 
the man shedding tears of penitence, his hands were 
joined on again and restored whole. At Gethsemane 
she was put into a tomb, but her Son transferred her to 
the divine habitation. 

Nicephorus 2 then refers to Juvenal, Archbishop of 
Jerusalem, as the authority on which the tradition was 
received, that the Apostles opened the coffin to enable 
St. Thomas (the one stated to have been absent) to 
embrace the body; and then he proceeds to describe 
the personal appearance of the Virgin. 

I am unwilling to trespass upon the patience of my 
readers by any comment upon such evidence as this. Is 
it within the verge of credibility that had such an event 
as Mary's assumption taken place under the extraordi- 
nary circumstances which now invest the tradition, 
or under any circumstances whatever, there would have 
been a total silence respecting it in the Holy Scriptures ? 

1 This tradition seems to have been much referred to at a time 
just preceding our Reformation. In a volume called " The Hours 
of the most blessed Mary, according to the legitimate rite of the 
Church of Salisbury," printed in Paris in 1526, from which we have 
made many extracts in the second part of this work, the frontis- 
piece gives an exact representation of the story at the moment of the 
Jew's hands being cut off. They are severed at the wrist, and are 
lying on the coffin, on which his arms also are resting. In the sky 
the Virgin appears between the Father and the Son, the Holy Dove 
being seen above her. The same print occurs also in another part 
of the volume. 

2 Vol. i. p. 171. 



CHAP. III.] THE VIRGIN MARY. 319 

That the writers of the first four centuries should never 
have referred to such a fact ? That the first writer who 
alludes to it, should have lived in the middle of the fifth 
century, or later ; and that he should have declared in 
a letter to his contemporaries that the subject was one 
on which many doubted ; and that he himself would not 
deny it, not because it rested upon probable evidence, 
but because nothing was impossible with God ; and that 
nothing was known as to the time, the manner, or the 
persons concerned, even had the assumption taken 
place ? Can we place any confidence in the relation of 
a writer in the middle of the sixth century, as to a 
tradition of what an archbishop of Jerusalem attending 
the council of Chalcedon, had told the sovereigns at 
Constantinople of a tradition, as to what was said to 
have happened nearly four hundred years before, whilst 
in the "Acts" of that Council, not the faintest trace is 
found of any allusion to the supposed fact or the alleged 
tradition, though the transactions of that Council in 
many of its most minute circumstances are recorded, 
and though the discussions of that Council brought the 
name and circumstances of the Virgin Mary continually 
before the minds of all who attended it ? 

This, however, is a point of too great importance to 
be dismissed summarily ; and seems to require us to 
examine, however briefly, into the circumstances of that 
Council. 



PART III.— CHAPTER IV. 



COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, EPHESUS, AND THE 
GENERAL COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON '. 

The legend on which the doctrine of the Assumption 
of the Virgin Mary is founded professes to trace the 
tradition to Juvenal, Archbishop of Jerusalem, when he 
was sojourning in Constantinople for the purpose of 
attending the General Council of Chalcedon. To the 
Emperor and Empress, who presided at that council, 
Juvenal is said to have communicated the tradition, as 
received in Palestine, of the miraculous taking up of 
Mary's body into heaven. This circumstance seems, as 
we have already intimated, of itself, to require us to 
examine the records of that Council, with the view of 
ascertaining whether any traces may be found confir- 
matory of the tradition, or otherwise ; and since that 
Council cannot be regarded as an insulated assembly, but 
as a continuation rather or resumption of the preceding 
minor Councils of Constantinople and Ephesus, we must 
briefly refer to the occasion and nature generally of 
that succession of Christian, synods. I am not aware 
that in the previous Councils any thing had transpired 

1 Cone. Gen. Florence, 1761. vol. v. vi. vii. 



CHAP. IV.] COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, &C. 321 

which could be brought as evidence on the subject of 
our inquiry. The questions which had disturbed the 
peace of Christendom, and which were agitated in 
these Councils, inseparable from a repeated mention 
of the Virgin Mary's name, afforded an opportunity 
at every turn for an expression of the sentiments of 
those who composed the Councils, and of all connected 
with them, including the Bishop of Rome himself, to- 
wards her. It would be altogether foreign from the 
purpose of this address to enter in any way at large 
upon the character and history of those or the preced- 
ing Councils, yet a. few words seem necessary, to enable 
us to judge of the nature and weight of the evidence 
borne by them on the question immediately before us. 

The source of all the disputes which then rent 
the Church of Him who had bequeathed peace as his 
last and best gift to his followers, was the anxiety 
to define and explain the nature of the great Christian 
mystery, the Incarnation of the Son of God ; a point 
on which it were well for all Christians to follow only 
so far as the Holy Scriptures lead them by the hand. All 
parties appealed to the Nicene Council ; though there 
seems to have been, to say the least, much misunder- 
standing and unnecessary violence and party spirit on 
all sides. The celebrated Eutyches of Constantinople 
was charged with having espoused heterodox doctrine, 
by maintaining that in Christ was only one nature, 
the incarnate Word. On this charge he was accused 
before a Council held at Constantinople in a.d. 448. 
His doctrine was considered to involve a denial of the 
human nature of the Son of God. The Council con- 
demned him of heresy, deposed, and excommunicated 
him. From this proceeding Eutyches appealed to a Ge- 
neral Council. A council (the authority of which, how- 



322 COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, [PART III. 

ever, has been solemnly, but with what adequate reason 
we need not stop to examine, repudiated), was convened 
at Ephesus in the following year, by the Emperor Theo- 
dosius. The proceedings of this assembly were accom- 
panied by lamentable unfairness and violence. Eutyches 
was acquitted, and restored by this council l ; and his 
accusers were condemned and persecuted ; Flavianus, 
Archbishop of Constantinople, who had summoned the 
preceding council, being even scourged and exiled. In 
his distress that patriarch sought the good offices of Leo, 
Bishop of Rome, who espoused his cause, but who failed 
nevertheless of inducing Theodosius to convene a General 
Council. His successor Marcian, however, consented ; 
and in the year 451 the Council of Chalcedon was con- 
vened, first meeting at Nice, and by adjournment being- 
removed to Chalcedon. In this council all the proceed- 
ings as well of the Council of Constantinople as of 
Ephesus, were rehearsed at length ; and from a close 
examination of the proceedings of those three councils, 
only one inference seems deducible, namely, that the 
invocation and worship of saints and of the Virgin Mary 
had not then obtained that place in the Christian 

1 The sentiments of Eutyches, even as they are recorded by the 
party who charged him with heresy, seem to imply so much of sound- 
ness in his principles, and of moderation in his maintenance of those 
principles, that one must feel sorrow on rinding such a man main- 
taining error at any time. The following is among the records of 
transactions rehearsed at Chalcedon : " He, Eutyches, professed that 
he followed the expositions of the holy and blessed Fathers who 
formed the Councils of Nicaea and Ephesus, and was ready to sub- 
scribe to them. But if any where it might chance, as he said, that 
our fathers were deceived and led astray, that as for himself he neither 
accepted nor accused those things, but he only on such points inves- 
tigated the divine Scriptures as more to be depended upon [wc 



CHAP. IV.] EPHESUS, AND CHALCEDON. 323 

Church, which the Church of Rome now assigns to 
it ; a place, however, which the Church of England, 
among other branches of the Catholic Church, main- 
tains that it has usurped, and cannot, without a sacri- 
fice of the only sound principle of religious worship, be 
suffered to retain. 

The grand question then agitated with too much 
asperity, and too little charity, was, whether by the 
incarnation our blessed Saviour became possessed of 
two natures, the divine and human. Subordinate to 
this, and necessary for its decision, was involved the 
question, What part of his nature, if any, Christ derived 
from the Virgin Mary ? Again and again does this 
question bring the name, the office, the circumstances, 
and the nature of that holy and blessed mother of our 
Lord before these Councils. The name of Mary is con- 
tinually in the mouth of the accusers, the accused, the 
judges, and the witnesses; and had Christian pastors 
then entertained the same feelings of devotion to- 
wards her; had they professed the same belief as 
to her assumption into heaven, and her influence and 
authority in directing the destinies of man. and in 
protecting the Church on earth ; had they habitually 
appealed to her with the same prayers for her in- 
tercession and good offices, and placed the same con- 
fidence in her as we find now exhibited in the 
authorized services of the Roman Ritual, it is impos- 
sible to conceive that no signs, no intimation of such 
views and feelings, would, either directly or incidentally, 
have shown themselves, somewhere or other, among 
the manifold and protracted proceedings of these Coun- 
cils. I have searched diligently, but I can find no 
expression as to her nature aiid office, or as to our 
feelings and conduct towards Mary, in which, as a 

y2 



324 COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, [PART III. 

Catholic of the Anglican Church, I should not heartily 
acquiesce. I can find no sentiment implying invoca- 
tion, or religious worship of any kind, or in any degree ; 
I find no allusion to her Assumption. 

Pope Leo, who is frequently in these documents l 
called Archbishop of Rome, in a letter to Julianus, 
Bishop of Cos, speaks of Christ as born of "A Virgin," 
"The blessed Virgin," "The pure, undefined Virgin;" 
and in a letter to the empress Pulcheria, he calls Mary 
simply "The Virgin Mary." In his celebrated letter 
to Flavianus, not one iota of which (according to the 
decree of the Roman council under Pope Gelasius) 
was to be questioned by any man on pain of incurring 
an anathema, Pope Leo says that Christ was conceived 
by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary 
his mother, who brought him forth with the same vir- 
gin purity as she had conceived him. Flavianus, Arch- 
bishop of Constantinople, in his Declaration of faith to 
the Emperor Theodosius, affirms, that Christ was born 
" of Mary, the Virgin — of the same substance with the 
Father according to his Godhead — of the same sub- 
stance with his mother according to his manhood 2 ." 
He speaks of her afterwards as "The holy Virgin." 

There is, indeed, one word used in a quotation from 
Cyril of Alexandria, and adopted in these transactions, 
which requires a few words of especial observation. 
The word is theotocos 3 , which the Latins were accus- 

1 Vol. v. p. 1418. 2 Vol. vi. p. 539. 

3 Oiorofvoc. To those who would depend upon this word theotocos 
as a proof of the exalted honour in which the early Christians held' 
the Virgin, and not as indicative of an anxiety to preserve whole and 
entire the doctrine of the union of perfect God and perfect man in 
Christ, deriving his manhood through her, I would suggest the 
necessity of weighing well that argument with this fact before them ; 



CHAP. IV.J EPHESUS, AND CHALCEDON. 325 

tomed to transfer into their works, substituting only 
Roman instead of Greek characters, but which after- 
wards the authors of the Church of Rome translated 
by Deipara, and in more recent ages by Dei Mater, 
Dei Genetrix, Creatoris Genetrix, &c. employing those 
terms not in explanation of the twofold nature of Christ's 
person, as was the case in these Councils, but in exalta- 
tion of Mary, his Virgin mother. This word was adopted 
by Christians in much earlier times than the Council of 
Chalcedon ; but it was employed only to express more 
strongly the Catholic belief in the union of the divine 
and human nature in Him who was Son both of God 
and man ; and by no means for the purpose of raising 
Mary into an object of religious adoration '. The sense 
in which it was used was explained in the seventh Act 
of the Council of Constantinople, (repeated at Chalce- 
don) as given by Cyril of Alexandria. " According to 
this sense of an unconfused union, we confess the holy 
Virgin to be theotocos, because that God the Word was 
made flesh, and became man, and from that very con- 
ception united with himself the temple received from 
her." 

Nothing in our present inquiry turns upon the real 

that to the Apostle James, called in Scripture the Lord's brother, 
was assigned the name of Adelphotheos, or God's brother. This 
name was given to James, not to exalt him above his fellow-apostles, 
but to declare the faith of those who gave it him in the union of the 
divine and human nature of Christ. — See Joan. Damascenus, Horn, 
ii. c. 18. In Dormit. Virg. vol. ii. p. 881. Le Quien, Paris, 1712. 
The Latin translation renders it Domini frater. 

1 It is curious to remark, that (according to Baluzius) all the 
ancient books, and all the editions of the records of these councils 
before the Roman, retained in the Latin translation "theotocos;" 
and when it was at length translated by " Dei Genetrix," the editor 
thought it necessary to ask, in justification of the novel form, " Who 
doubts that this is a good interpretation ?" — Vol. vi. p. 785. 



326 



COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, [PART III. 



meaning of that word theotocos. Some who have been 
among the brightest ornaments of the Anglican Church 
have adopted the translation " mother of God," whilst 
many others among us believe that the original sense 
would be more correctly conveyed by the expression 
"mother of Him who was God." 

I am induced here to lay side by side, with the 
second Article of our Anglican Church, the Confession 
of Faith from Cyril, first recited at Constantinople, then 
repeated at Ephesus, and afterwards again rehearsed at 
Chalcedon ; in its last clause the expression occurs 
which gave rise to these remarks. 



Ancient Confession l . 
We confess that our Lord Jesus, 
the Christ, the only begotten Son 
of God, perfect God and perfect 
man, from a reasonable soul and 
body, begotten from everlasting of 
the Father according to his God- 
head, and in these last days, He 
the same for us and for our salvation 
[was born] of Mary, the Virgin, 
according to his manhood — of the 
same substance with the Father 
according to his Godhead, of the 
same substance with us according 
to his manhood. For of two na- 
tures there became an union. 
Wherefore we confess one Christ, 
one Lord. According to this sense 
of the unconfused union, we con- 
fess the holy Virgin to be theoto- 
cos, because that God the Word 
was made flesh, and became man, 
and from that very conception 
united with himself the temple 
received from her. 



Second Article of Anglican Church. 
The Son, which is the Word of 
the Father, begotten from ever- 
lasting of the Father, the very and 
eternal God, and of one substance 
with the Father, took man's na- 
ture in the womb of the blessed 
Virgin, of her substance : so that 
two whole and perfect natures, 
that is to say, the Godhead and 
Manhood, were joined together in 
one Person, never to be divided, 
whereof is one Christ, very God, 
and very man ; who truly suf- 
fered, was crucified, dead and 
buried, to reconcile his Father to 
us, and to be a sacrifice, not only 
for original guilt, but also for 
actual sins of men. 



1 Vol. vi. p. 736. 



CHAP. IV.] EPHESUS, AND CHALCEDON. 327 

But there are other points in the course of these 
important proceedings to which I would solicit your 
especial attention, with the view of comparing the senti- 
ments of the Bishop of Rome at that day, and also the 
expressions employed by other Chief Pastors of Christ's 
flock, with the language of the appointed authorized ser- 
vices of the Roman Church now, and the sentiments of 
her reigning Pontiff, and of his accredited ministers. 

The circumstances of the Church Catholic, as repre- 
sented in Leo's letter in the fifth century, and the 
circumstances of the Church of Rome, as lamented by 
the present Pope \ in 1832 2 , are in many respects very 
similar. The end desired by Leo and Flavianus, his 
brother pastor and contemporary, Bishop of Constanti- 
nople, and by Gregory, now Bishop of Rome, is one and 
the same, namely, the suppression of heresy, the pre- 
valence of the truth, and the unity of the Christian 
Church. But how widely and how strikingly different 
are the foundations on which they respectively build 
their hopes for the attainment of that end ! 

The present Roman Pontiffs hopes, and desires, and 
exhortations are thus expressed 3 : — 

"That all may have a successful and happy issue, 
let us raise our eyes to the most blessed Virgin Mary, 

1 A.D. 1840. 

2 "The encyclical letter of our most holy Father, Pope Gregory, 
by divine providence, the sixteenth of that name, to all patriarchs, 
primates, archbishops, and bishops." 

3 This is the translation circulated in the Roman Catholic Annual, 
p. 15, called, The Laity's Directory for the year 1833 ; on the title 
page of which is this notice : " The Directory for the Church Service, 
printed by Messrs. Keating and Brown, is the only one which is 
published with the authority of the Vicars x\postolic in England. 
— London, Nov. 12, 1829." Signed "James, Bishop of Usula, Vic. 
Ap. Lond." 



328 COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, [PART III. 

WHO ALONE DESTROYS HERESIES, who is Our GREATEST 

hope, yea, the entire ground of our hope *. May 
she exert her patronage to draw down an efficacious 
blessing on our desires, our plans, and proceedings in 
the present straitened condition of the Lord's flock. 
We will also implore, in humble prayer, from Peter, 
the prince of the Apostles, and from his fellow-Apostle 
Paul, that you may all stand as a wall to prevent any 
other foundation than what hath been laid ; and sup- 
ported by this cheering hope, we have confidence that 
the author and finisher of faith, Jesus Christ, will at 
last console us all in the tribulations which have found 
us exceedingly." 

" To you, venerable brethren, and the flocks com- 
mitted to your care, we most lovingly impart, as 
auspicious of celestial help, the Apostolic Benediction. 
Given at Rome from St. Mary Major's, August 15th, 
the Festival of the Assumption of the same blessed 
Virgin Mary, the year of our Lord 1832, of our Pon- 
tificate the Second." 

How deplorable a change, how melancholy a dege- 
neracy is here evinced from the faith, and hopes, and 
sentiments of Christian bishops in days of old ! In the 
expressed hopes of Leo and Flavianus, you will seek 
in vain for any reference or allusion " to the blessed 
Virgin Mary, as the destroyer of heresies, the greatest 
hope, the entire ground of a Christian's hope;" you will 
in vain seek for any exhortation for the faithful "to 
raise their eyes to her in order to obtain a merciful 
and happy issue." Equally vain would be your search 
for any "imploring in humble prayer," of Peter and 
Paul, or any even distant allusion to help from them. 

1 On this word there is a note of reference to S. Bern. Serm. de 
Nat. B. M.V. 7. 



CHAP. IV.] EPHESUS, AND CHALCEDON. 329 

To God and God alone are the faithful exhorted to 
praj ; on God and God alone do those Christians ex- 
press that their hopes rely ; God alone they regard as 
the destroyer of heresy, the restorer of peace, and the 
protector of the Church's unity. "Their greatest hope, 
yea, the entire ground of their hope," the Being to be 
" implored in humble prayer, 1 ' is not Mary, nor Peter, 
nor Paul, but God alone, the Creator, the Redeemer, 
the Sanctifier of Mary, and of Peter, and of Paul. 

Thus Flavian writing to Leo says, " Wherefore (in 
consequence of those errors, and heresies, and distrac- 
tions, which he had deplored) we must be sober and 
watch unto prayer, and draw nigh to God V And 
again, " Thus will the heresy which has arisen, and the 
consequent commotion, be easily destroyed by your 
holy letters with the assistance of God 2 ." Thus Leo 
in his turn writing to Julian, Bishop of Cos, utters this 
truly Christian sentiment. " May the mercy of God, 
as we trust, grant that without the loss of any soul, 
against the darts of the devil the sound parts may be 
entirely preserved, and the wounded parts may be 
healed. May God preserve you safe and sound, most 
honoured brother 3 ! " Thus the same Bishop of Rome 
writing to Flavian, expresses his hopes in these words : 
" Confidently trusting that the help of God will be 
present, so that one who has been misled, condemning 
the vanity of his own thoughts, may be saved. May 
God preserve you in health and strength, most beloved 
brother 4 ! " 

I will detain you by only one more reference to these 
most interesting documents. The whole Council of 
Chalcedon, at the conclusion of all, and when the 

1 Vol. v. 1330. 2 Vol. v. 1355. 

3 Vol. v. 1423. 4 Vol. v. 1390. 



330 COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, [PART III. 

triumph was considered to have been secured over 
Eutyches, and their gratitude was expressed that the 
heresies had been destroyed — instead of referring to 
Mary as the " sole destroyer of heresies," shout, as if 
with the voice of one man, from every side, " It is God 
alone who hath done this 1 !" Neither antecedently 
did their chief pastors exhort them to raise their 
eyes to Mary, and promise to " implore " the blessing 
they needed, " in humble prayer from Peter and Paul." 
Neither "in the straitened condition of the Lord's 
flock" did they invoke any other than God. And 
when truth prevailed, and the victory was won, whilst 
they were lavish of their grateful thanks to the emperor 
and his queen, who were present and had succoured 
them ; of help from the invisible world they make no 
mention, save only of the Lord's ; they had implored 
neither angel, nor saints, nor Virgin to be their pro- 
tector and patron ; no angel, nor saint, nor virgin, 
shared their praises ; — God alone was exalted in that 
dav. 

And, let not the answer, ever at hand when refer- 
ence is thus made to the prayers or professions of indi- 
viduals, whether popes or canonized saints, seduce any 
now from a pursuit of the very truth. These, it is 
said, " are the prayers and professions of individuals, 
it is unfair then to make the Church responsible for 
them ; we appeal from them to the Church." But in 
this case the words of the Sovereign Pontiff are in good 
faith the words of the Church of Rome ; not because I at 
all would identify the words of a Pope with the Church, 
but because the prayers of the Church of Rome in her 
authorized solemn services and acts of worship justify 

1 Vol. vii. p. 174. 



CHAP. IV.] EPHESUS, AND CHALCEDON. 331 

Pope Gregory in every sentiment he utters, and every 
expression he employs. Does Gregory bid the faithful 
lift up their eyes to Mary the sole destroyer of heresies ? 
The Roman ritual in the Lesser Office of the holy Vir- 
gin thus addresses her, " Rejoice, O Mary Virgin ; thou 
alone hast destroyed all heresies in the whole world:" 
And again: "Under thy protection we take refuge, 
holy parent of God ; despise not thou our prayers in 
our necessities, but from all dangers ever deliver us, 
glorious and blessed Virgin." Does Gregory assure the 
faithful that he will implore in humble prayer of Peter 
and Paul? in doing so he is only treading in the very 
footsteps of the Roman Church itself. * In an address, 
which we have already quoted \ Peter is thus invoked. 
"Now O good shepherd, merciful Peter, accept the 
prayers of us who supplicate, and loose the bands of 
our sins, by the power committed to thee, by which 
thou shuttest heaven against all by a word, and openest 
it." 

These things are now; but from the beginning it 
was not so. 

1 See p. 262. 



PART IIL— CHAPTER V. 



SECTION I. 

PRESENT WORSHIP OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN IN THE AU- 
THORIZED AND ENJOINED SERVICES OF THE CHURCH 
OF ROME. 

When from examining the evidence of antiquity we 
turn to the present enjoined services of the Church of 
Rome, it is impossible not to be struck by the fact re- 
peatedly forced upon our notice, that whereas the invo- 
cation of the Virgin seems to have been introduced at 
a period much later than those addresses to the martyrs 
which have already invited our attention, her worship 
now assumes so much higher a place, and claims so large 
a share in the public worship of the Roman Catholic 
portions of Christendom above martyrs, saints, and 
angels. The offices of the Virgin present instances of 
all those various and progressive stages of divine wor- 
ship, which we have already exemj3lified in the case of 
the martyrs, from the first primitive and Christian 
practice of making the anniversary of the Saint a day 
either of especial praise and prayer to God for the 
mercies of redemption generally, or of returning thanks 
to God for the graces manifested in his holy servants 
now in peace, with prayers for light and strength to 
enable the worshippers to follow them, as they followed 
Christ — down to the last and worst stage, the con sum- 



CHAP. V.] AUTHORIZED WORSHIP. &C. 333 

mation of all, namely, prayer directly to saints and 
angels for protection, succour, and spiritual benefits at 
their hands. 

I. Of the first class is the following collect, retained 
almost word for word in our Anglican service. 

On the day of the Purification. 

" Almighty and everlasting God, we humbly beseech 
thy majesty, that as thy only begotten Son was this 
day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, 
so Thou wouldest cause us to be presented unto Thee 
with purified minds. Through the same 1 ." 

Such a prayer is founded on the facts of revelation, 
and is primitive, catholic, apostolic, and evangelical. 

II. Of the second progressive stage towards the ado- 
ration of the saints, the offices of the Virgin supply us 
with various instances ; the case, namely, of the Chris- 
tian orator being led by the flow of his eloquence to 
apostrophize the spirit of the Saint, and address him 
as though he were present, witnessing the celebration 
of his day, hearing the panegyrics uttered for his 
honour, and partaking with the congregation in their 
religious acts of worship. 

" 2 O holy and spotless virginhood ; with what praises 
to extol thee I know not : because Him, whom the 
heavens could not contain, thou didst bear in thy bosom. 

1 Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, majestatem tuam snpplices exo- 
ra mus,ut sicut unigenitus Filius tuus hodierna die cum nostrse carnis 
substantia est praesentatus, ita nos facias purificatis tibi mentibus 
prsesentari. Per eundem Dominum. — H. 536. 

2 Sancta et immaculata Virginitas ! quibus te laudibus efferam, 
nescio, quia quem cceli capere non poterant, tuo gremio contulisti. 
Benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui. — 
Vern. cxlvii. 



334 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit 
of thy womb. Thou art blessed, O Virgin Mary, who 
didst carry the Lord, the Creator of the world. Thou 
didst give birth to Him who made thee, and remainest 
a virgin for ever ! . Hail, holy parent, who didst in 
child-birth bring forth the King who ruleth heaven 
and earth for ever and ever. Amen 2 ." 

In apostrophes like these, the members of the 
Anglican Church see nothing in itself harmful, so 
long as they are kept within due bounds. Many of 
the passages cited from the ancient writers in proof of 
their having espoused the doctrine, and exemplified in 
themselves the practice of invoking saints, are nothing 
more than these glowing addresses. They have been 
responded to by one of the brightest ornaments, and 
sweetest minstrels of the Anglican Church, whose 
apostrophe at the same time by its own words would 
guard us against the abuses and excesses in which in 
the Roman Catholic Church this practice, followed 
without restraint and indulged in with less and less 
of caution and soberness, unhappily ended ; abuses 
against which also we cannot ourselves now be too 
constantly and carefully on our guard. 

" Ave Maria ! Blessed maid, 
Lily of Eden's fragrant shade, 

Who can express the love, 
That nurtured thee so pure and sweet ; 
Making thy heart a shelter meet 

For Jesus' holy Dove? 

1 Beata es Virgo Maria, quae Dominum portasti Creatorem mundi : 
genuisti qui te fecit, et in seternum permanes .virgo. — Vern. clxii. 

2 Salve sacra parens enixa puerpera regem, qui coelum terramque 
regit in saecula saeculorum. Amen. — Introit. at the mass on the 
Nativity of the Virgin. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 335 

Ave Maria ! mother blest, 

To whom, caressing and caress' d, 

Clings the Eternal Child ! 
Favour'd beyond archangel's dream, 
When first on thee with tenderest gleam 

The newborn Saviour smiled. 

Ave Maria ! thou whose name, 
All but adoring love may claim, 

Yet mav we reach thv shrine ; 
For He, thy Son and Saviour, vows, 
To crown all lowly lofty brows 

With love and joy like thine. 

Bless'd is the womb that bare Him, — bless'd 
The bosom where his lips were press'd ; 

But rather bless'd are they 
Who hear his word and keep it well, 
The living homes where Christ shall dwell, 

And never pass away l " 

Would that no branch of the Church Catholic had 
ever passed the boundary line drawn here so exqui- 
sitely by this Anglican Catholic, from whose lips or 
pen no syllable could ever fall in disparagement of the 
holy Virgin, as blessed among women, and the holy 
mother of our Lord. To bring about the re-union of 
Christians would in that case have been a far more 
hopeful task than it is now. 

III. In the third stage, a prayer was offered to God, 
that He would permit the intercessions of the saints to 
help us ; or the prayer contained the expression of a 
wish, — a desire not addressed either to God or to 
the saint, merely words expressive of the hope of the 
individual. The following are -some of the many in- 
stances now contained in the Roman Breviary : 

1 J. Keble's Christian Year, "The Annunciation." 



336 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

" May the Virgin of virgins herself intercede for us 
to the Lord. Amen 1 ." 

In the Post-communion, on the day of the Assump- 
tion, this prayer is offered : — " Partakers of the heavenly 
table, we implore thy clemency, O Lord our God, that 
we who celebrate the Assumption of the mother of God, 
may, by her intercession, be freed from all impending 
evils. Through 2 ," &c. 

" We beseech Thee, O Lord, let the glorious inter- 
cession of the blessed and glorious ever Virgin Mary 
protect us and bring us to life eternal 3 ." 

" Pardon, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the offences of 
thy servants, that we, who cannot please Thee of our 
own act, may be saved by the intercession of the mother 
of thy Son, our Lord, who liveth with Thee 4 ." 

On the vigil of the Epiphany, this prayer is offered in 
the Post-communion at the mass, — " Let this commu- 
nion, O Lord, purge us from guilt, and by the interces- 
sion of the blessed Virgin, mother of God, let it make us 
partakers of the heavenly cure. Through the same V 

" Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord God, that we thy 



1 Ipsa Virgo virginum intercedat pro nobis ad Dominum. Amen. 
— Vera, cxlviii. 

2 Mensse ccelestis participes effecti imploramus clementiam tuam, 
Domine Deus noster, ut qui Assumptionem Dei Genetricis colimus, 
a cunctis malis imminentibus ejus intercessione liberemur. Per. — 
Miss. Rom. 

3 Beatae et gloriosse semper Virginis Marise, qusesumus, Domine, 
intercessio gloriosa nos protegat, et ad vitam producat aeternam. — 
Verri. civ. 

4 Famulorum tuorum qusesumus, Domine, delictis ignosce, ut qui 
tibi placere de nostris actibus non valemus, Genetricis Filii tui, Do- 
mini nostri, intercessione salvemur, qui tecum vivit. — Vern. clxix. 

5 Hsec nos communio, Domine, purget a crimine, et intercedente 
beata Virgine Dei genetrice ccelestis remedii faciat esse consortes. 
Per eundem. — Miss. Rom. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 337 

servants may enjoy perpetual health of body and mind, 
and be freed from present sorrow, and enjoy eternal 
gladness, by the glorious intercession of the blessed 
Mary, ever Virgin. Through 1 ." 

On the second Sunday after Easter, we find a fur- 
ther and more sad departure from the simplicity of 
Christian worship, in which the Church of Rome 
declares that the offerings made to God at the Lord's 
Supper were made for the honour of the Virgin. — 
" Having received, O Lord, the helps of our salvation, 
grant, we beseech Thee, that by the patronage of 
Mary, ever Virgin, we may be every where protected ; 
in veneration of w 7 hom we make these offerings to thy 
Majesty 2 ." 

On the octave of Easter, at the celebration of mass, 
in the Secret, the intercession of the Virgin is made to 
appear as essential a cause of our peace and blessed- 
ness as the propitiation of Christ ; or rather, the two 
are represented as joint concurrent causes ; as though 
the office of the Saviour was confined to propitiation, 
exclusive altogether of intercession, whilst the office of 
intercession w 7 as assigned to the Virgin. — " By thy pro- 
pitiation, O Lord, and by the intercession of the blessed 
Mary, ever Virgin, may this offering be profitable to us 
for perpetual and present prosperity and peace V 

1 Concede nos famulos tuos, quaesumus, Domine Deus, perpetua 
mentis et corporis sanitate gaudere, et gloriosa beatae Mariae semper 
Virginis intercessione a praesenti liberari tristitia, et aeterna perfrui 
laetitia. Per Dominum. — Vern. cxlvi. 

2 Sumptis, Domine, salutis nostras subsidiis, da, quaesumus, beatae 
Mariae semper Virginis patrociniis ubique protegi, in cajus veneratione 
haec tuae obtulimus Majestati." — Post Commun. Mis. Rom. 

3 Tua, Domine, propitiatione et beatae Mariae semper Virginis 
intercessione ad perpetuam atque praesentem haec oblatio nobis pro- 
fecerit prosperitatem et pacem. 

Z 



338 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

IV. A fourth station in this lamentable progress 
was evidenced when Christians at the tombs of martyrs 
implored, yet still in prayer to God, that He would, 
for the sake of the martyrs, and by their merits and 
good offices, grant to the petitioner some benefit tem- 
poral or spiritual. Of that practice, we have an exam- 
ple in this prayer : " O God, who didst deign to choose 
the blessed Virgin's womb in which to dwell, vouch- 
safe, we beseech thee, to make us, defended by her 
protection, to take pleasure in her commemoration V 

"By the Virgin mother, may the Lord grant us 
health and peace. Amen 2 . " 

" By the prayers and merits of the blessed Mary, 
ever Virgin, and of all saints, may the Lord bring us 
to the kingdom of heaven V 

"May the Virgin Mary bless us, together with a 
pious offspring 4 ." 

V. The fifth grade involves a still more melancholv 
departure from Christian truth and primitive simplicity, 
when the prayer is no longer addressed to God, but is 
offered to the Virgin, imploring her to intercede with 
God for the supplicants, yet still asking nothing but 
her prayers. 

"Blessed mother, Virgin undefiled, glorious Queen 
of the world, intercede for us with the Lord 5 ." 

1 Deus qui virginalem aulam beatae Mariae in qua habitares eligere 
dignatus es, da, quaesumus, ut sua nos defensione munitos jucundos 
facias suae interesse commemoration]'. — Mst. clvi. 

2 Per Virginem Matrem concedat nobis Dominus salutem et 
pacem. Amen. — Vern. cxliii. 

3 Precibus et mentis beatae Mariae Virginis et omnium sanctorum 
perducat nos Dominus ad regna ccelorum. — Vern. cxlvii. 

4 Nos cum prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria. — Vern. cxlvii. 

5 Beata Mater, et intacta Virgo, gloriosa regina mundi, intercede 
pro nobis ad Dominum. — Aut. cxliv. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 339 

"Blessed mother of God, Mary, perpetual Virgin, 
the temple of the Lord, the holy place of the holy 
Spirit, thou alone without example hast pleased our 
Lord Jesus Christ : Pray for the people, mediate for 
the clergy, intercede for the female sex who are under 
a vow \ 

Holy Mary, pray for us ! 

Holy mother of God, pray for us ! 

Holy Virgin of virgins, pray for us ! " 

In the form of prayer called Litanise Lauretanse, 
between the most solemn addresses to the ever blessed 
Trinity, and to the Lamb of God that taketh away the 
sins of the world, are inserted more than forty addresses 
to the Virgin, invoking her under as many varieties of 
title. She is appealed to as — The Mirror of Justice, 
The Cause of our Joy, The mystical Rose, The Tower 
of David, The Tower of Ivory, The House of Gold, The 
Arc of the Covenant, The Gate of Heaven, The Refuge of 
Sinners, The Queen of Angels, the Queen of all Saints 2 . 

In examining the case of the invocation of saints, we 
placed under this head, as the safer course, a kind of 
invocation which seemed to vacillate between this 
appeal to them merely for intercession, and the last 
consummation of all, direct prayer to them for bless- 
ings. We exemplified it by the hymn to St. Stephen. 
The following seems very much of the same character, 
addressed to the Virgin : — 

"Hail, O Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, sweet- 
ness, and hope, Hail ! To thee we cry, banished sons 

1 " Beata Dei Genitrix, Maria Virgo perpetua, templum Domini, 
sacrarium Spiritus Sancti, sola sine exemplo placuisti Domino nostro 
Jesu Christo ; ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro de- 
voto femineo sexu." — Vern. clxiii. 

2 Vern. ccxxxix. 

z2 



340 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART II 

of Eve. To thee we sigh, groaning and weeping in 
this valley of tears. Come then, our Advocate, turn 
those compassionate eyes of thine on us, and after this 
exile show to us Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb. 
O merciful ! O pious ! O sweet Virgin Mary ! 

" Pray for us, O holy Mother of God, that we may 
be made worthy of the promises of Christ V 

VI. Unhappily, in the appointed religious services 
of the Roman ritual, we have too many examples of 
prayer for benefits spiritual and temporal, addressed 
directly to the Virgin. It is in vain to say that all 
that is meant is to ask her intercession ; the people 
will not, cannot, do not, regard it in that light. It 
is affirmed that when the Church of Rome guides and 
directs her sons and daughters to pray for specific 
benefits at the hands of the Virgin mother, without 
any mention of her prayers, without specifying that her 
petitions are all that they ask ; yet they are taught 
only to ask for her intercession, and are not encou- 
raged to look for the blessings as her gift and at her 
hands. But, can this be right and safe ? In an act of 
all human acts the most solemn and holy, can recourse 
be had to such refinements without great danger ? 

Among many others of a similar kind this invocation 
frequently recurs, " Deem me worthy to praise thee, 



1 Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordise, vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, 
salve. Ad te clamamus exules filii Evse. Ad te suspiramus ge- 
mentes et flentes in hac lachrymarum valle. Eja ergo Aclvocata 
nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte, et Jesum 
benedictum fructum ventris tui nobis post hoc exilium ostende. 
O clemens ! O pia! O dulcis Virgo Maria! 

Ora pro nobis, Sancta Dei Genetrix, ut digni efficiamur promis- 
sionibus Christi, — 2Est. 151. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 341 

O sacred Virgin ; give to me strength against thy ene- 
mies V 

The following seems to be among the most favourite 
addresses to the Virgin : — " Hail, Star of the Sea, kind 
Mother of God, and ever Virgin! Happy Gate of 
Heaven, taking that 'Hail!' from the mouth of Gabriel, 
establish us in peace, — changing the name of Eve. For 
the guilty, loose their bonds ; bring forth light for the 
blind ; drive away our evils ; demand for us all good 
things. Show that thou art a mother. Let Him 
who endured for us to be thv Son, through thee receive 
our prayers. O excellent Virgin, meek among all, us, 

FREED FROM FAULT, MAKE MEEK AND CHASTE ; make Olir 

life pure ; prepare a safe journey ; that, beholding 
Jesus, we may always rejoice. Praise be to God the 
Father, glory to Christ most high, and to the Holy 
Spirit ; one honour to the three. Amen 2 ." 

In the body of this hymn, there is undoubtedly refer- 
ence to an application to be made to the Son, &c; but 
can it be fitting that such language as is here suggested 

O O © ©o 

to the Virgin, for her to use, should be addressed by a 

1 Dignare me laudare te, Virgo sacrata. Da mihi virtutem contra 
hostes tuos. — iEst. clvi. 

2 Ave Maris Stella, Monstra te esse iiatrem ; 

Dei Mater alma, Sumat per te preces, 

Atque semper Virgo ! Qui pro nobis natus 

Felix cceli porta, Tulit esse tuus. 

Sumens illud Ave Virgo singularis, 

Gabrielis ore, Inter omnes mitis, 

Funda nos in pace, Nos culpa solutos, 

Mutans Evae nomen. Mites fac et castos ; 

Solve vincla reis, Vitam praesta puram, 

Profer lumen caecis, Iter para tutum, 

Mala nostra pelle, Ut videntes Jesum 

Bona cuncta posce. Semper collaetemur. 

Sit laus Deo Patri, summo Christo decus, 
Spiritui Sancto, .tribus honor unus. Amen. — iEst. 597. 



342 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

mortal to God ? can such a call upon her to show her 
power and influence over the eternal Son of the eternal 
Father be fitting — "Show that thou art a mother?" 
I confess that against what is here implied, my under- 
standing and my heart entirely revolt l . 

1 At the present day some versions, contrary to the whole drift and 
plain sense and meaning of the passage, have translated it, as though 
the prayer was, that Mary would, by her maternal good offices in 
our behalf, prove to us that she was our mother. An instance of what 
T mean occurs in a work called " Nouveau Recueil de Cantiques," 
p. 353. 

" Monstra te esse Matrem : Faites voir que vous etes veritablement 
notre mere." In an English manual, first printed in 1688, and then 
called "The Prince of Wales's Manual," the lines are thus rendered — 
" Shew us a Mother's care, 
To Him convey our prayer, 
Who for our sake put on 
The title of thy Son." 

I rejoice to see an indication of a feeling of impropriety in the 
sentiment in its plain, obvious meaning ; still the change is inadmis- 
sible. She is addressed above, in the second line, as the mother 
of God ; Jesus is immediately mentioned, in the very next line, and 
through the entire stanza, as her Son ; and the prayer is, that 
through her that Being who endured to be her Son would hear the 
prayers of the worshippers. 

Since I first prepared this note for the press, I have found a proof, 
that the obvious grammatical and logical meaning, " show thyself 
to be His mother," is the sense in which it was received and inter- 
preted before the Reformation. In a work dedicated to the " Youth 
of England studious of good morals," and entitled " Expositio 
Sequentiarum," the only interpretation given to this passage is 
thus expressed : " Show thyself to be a mother, namely by ap- 
peasing thy Son, and let thy Son take our prayers through thee, 
who (namely, the Son born of the Virgin Mary,) for us miserable 
sinners endured to be thy Son." "Monstra te esse matrem (sc.) 
placando filium tuum, et Alius tuus sumat precem, id est, depreca- 
tiones nostras per te qui (sc.) filius natus ex Virgine Maria pro nobis 
(sc.) miseris peccatoribus tulit, id est, sustinuit esse tuus filius." It 
must be observed, that this work was expressly written for the purpose 
of explaining these parts of the ritual according to the use of Sarum. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 343 

Another prayer runs thus : " Under thy protection 
we take refuge, Holy Mother of God. Despise not our 
supplications in our necessities ; but from all dangers 
ever deliver us, O glorious and Blessed Virgin 1 ." 

Let us suppose the object of these addresses to 
be changed ; and instead of the Virgin let us sub- 
stitute the name of the ever-blessed God and Father 
of us all. The very words here addressed to the Virgin 
are offered to Him, and spoken of Him in some of 
the most affecting prayers and praises recorded in the 
Bible 2 . 



It was printed by the famous W. de Worde, at the sign of the Sun 
in Fleet-street, 1508. The passage occurs in p. 33. b. This is by- 
no means the only book of the kind. T have before me one printed 
at Basil, in 1504, and another at Cologne the same year. They are 
evidently all drawn from some common source, but are not reprints 
all of the same work, for there are in each some variations. The 
Cologne edition tells us, that it was the reprint of a familiar com- 
mentary long ago (jamdudum) published on the hymns. All these 
join in construing the passage so as to represent the prayer to the 
Virgin to be, that she would show and prove that she was mother by 
appeasing her Son, and causing him to hear our prayers. Nor can 
any other meaning be attached to the translation of the words as 
given by Cardinal Du Perron (Replique a la Rep. du Roy de la G. 
Bretagne. Paris, 1620, p. 970). " Et pourtant quand l'Eglise dit a la 
saincte Vierge, ' Defends nous de l'ennemy, et nous recoy a l'heure 
delamort,' elle n'entend pas prier la Vierge qu'elle nous recoive par 
sa propre virtu, maispar impetration de la grace de son Fils, comme 
l'Eglise le temoigne en ces mots : ' Monstre que tu es mere, 
recoive par toy nos prieres celuy, qui ne pour nous a eu agreeable 
d'etre tien ! ' " This novel interpretation I have not found in any 
one book of former days. 

1 Sub tuum praesidium confugimus, sancta Dei Genetrix ; nostras 
deprecationes ne despicias in necessitatibus, sed a periculis cunctis 
libera nos semper, Virgo gloriosa et benedicta. — Mst. cxlvi. 

2 The identity of the prayers offered to the Virgin with those 
offered in the Book of inspiration^ or in the Roman Ritual to the 



344 



AUTHORIZED WORSHIP 



[PART III. 



But another hymn in the office of the Virgin, ad- 
dressed in part to the blessed Saviour himself, and 
partly to the Virgin Mary, is still more revolting to all 
my feelings with regard to religious worship. The 
Redeemer is only asked to remember his mortal birth ; 
no blessing is here supplicated for at his hands; his 
protection is not sought ; no deliverance of our souls at 
the hour of death is implored from Him ; these bless- 
ings, and these heavenly benefits, and these divine 
mercies, are sought for exclusively at the hands of the 
Virgin alone. Can such a mingled prayer, can such a 
contrast in prayer, be the genuine fruit of that Gospel 
which bids us ask for all we need in prayer to God in 
the name and for the sake of his blessed Son ? 

"Author of our salvation, remember that once, by 



Almighty, becomes very striking, if we lay side by side the author- 
ized language of the Roman Liturgy, and the only translation of the 
Scriptures authorized by the Roman Church. 



Roman Ritual in addressing the Roman Ritual, or Translation of 

the Bible, in addressing the 
Almighty. 



Virgin. 
Sub tuum presidium confugimus. 



Nostras deprecationes ne despi- 

cias in necessitatibus. 
Sed a periculis cunctis libera nos. 



Tu nos ab hoste protege. 
Et hora mortis suscipe. 



Dominus, firmamentum meum et 
refugium meum. Ad te confugi. 
— Ps. xvii. 1 ; cxlii. 11. 

Ne despexeris deprecationem 
meam. — Ps. liv. 1. 

Libera, Domine, animam servi 
tui ab omnibus periculis inferni. 
Hiem. ccvi. 

Libera nos a malo. Orat. Dom. 

A periculo mortis libera nos, Do- 
mine. — Hiem. cciv. 

Eripe me de inimicis meis, Do- 
mine. — Ps. cxlii. 11. 

Suscipe, Domine, servum tuum. 
— Hiem. ccvi. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 345 

being born of a spotless virgin, thou didst take the 
form of our body ! Mary, mother of grace, mother of 
mercy, do thou protect us from the enemy, and receive 
us at the hour of death. Glory to thee, O Lord, Avho 
wast born of a Virgin, with the Father and the Holy 
Spirit, through eternal ages. Amen 1 ." 

Could the beloved John, to whose kind and tender 
care our blessed Lord gave his mother of especial trust, 
have offered to her such a prayer as this? To God 
alone surely would he have prayed for deliverance from 
all evil and mischief. To God alone would he have 
prayed : — " In the hour of death, good Lord, deliver us, 
and all for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Saviour and 
Mediator." 

To one other example of the practice of the Church 
of Rome I must refer. The rubric in our Book of 
Common Prayer directs that " at the end of every 
Psalm throughout the year, shall be repeated, Glory be to 
the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost : As 
it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world 
without end. Amen." In the Roman Breviary also 
we find this rubric : " This verse, Gloria, is always said 
in the end of all psalms, except it be otherwise 

1 Memento, Salutis Auctor, Tu nos ab hoste protege, 

Quod nostri quondam corporis, Et hora mortis suscipe. 

Ex illibata Virgine, Gloria tibi, Domine, 

Nascendo formam sumpseris. Qui natus es de Virgine, 

Maria mater gratiae, Cum Patre et Sancto Spiritu, 

Mater misericordise, In sempiterna saecula. Amen. 

In the new version, (referred to in page 260 of the present work,) 

this hymn stands thus : — 

Memento, rerum Conditor, Maria mater gratiae, 

Nostri quod olim corporis, Dulcis parens clementiae, 

Sacrata ab alvo Virginis, Tu nos ab hoste protege, 

Nascendo formam sumpseris. In mortis hora suscipe, &c. 

JEst. civ. 



346 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

noted V Such notifications occur at the end of 
various psalms. On the Feast 2 of the Assumption, 
fourteen psalms are appointed to be used. At the close 
of every one of these psalms, without however any note 
that the Gloria is not to be said, there is appended 
an anthem to the Virgin. In some cases, so intimately 
is the anthem interwoven with the closing words of 
the psalm, as that under other circumstances it would 
induce us to infer that the Gloria was intended to be 
left out, especially as in the Parvum Officium of the 
Virgin 3 , though to the various psalms anthems in the 
same manner have been annexed, yet the words " Gloria 
Patri et Filio" are inserted in each case between the 
psalm and the anthem. Be this as it may, the annexa- 
tion of the anthem has a lamentable tendency to with- 
draw the thoughts of the worshippers from the truths 
contained in the inspired psalm, and to fix them upon 
Mary and her Assumption ; changing the Church's 
address from the Eternal Being, alone invoked by the 
Psalmist, to one, who though a virgin blessed among 
women, is a creature of God's hand. Thus, at the con- 
clusion of the 8th psalm ; " O Lord, our Lord, how 
excellent is thy name in all the world," we find imme- 
diately annexed these two anthems, " The holy mother 
of God is exalted above the choirs of angels to the 
heavenly realms. The gates of paradise are opened to 
us by thee, [by thee, O Virgin 4 ] who glorious tri- 
umphest with the angels." Thus again, an anthem is 
attached to the last verse of the 95th (in the Hebrew 
and English versions the 96th). " He shall judge the 
earth in equity, and the people with his truth. Re- 

1 JEst. 3. 2 JEst. 595. 

3 iEst. civ. 4 Quae gloriosa. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY". 347 

joice, Virgin Mary; thou alone hast destroyed all 
heresies in the whole world. Deem me worthy to 
praise thee, hallowed Virgin : Give me strength against 
thy enemies." To the 96th (97th), the latter clause 
of that address is repeated, with the addition of the 
following : " After the birth thou didst remain a virgin 
inviolate. Mother of God, intercede for us." 

An instance of the anthem being so intimately inter- 
woven with the psalm, as to render the insertion of the 
' Gloria,' between the two, to say the least, forced and 
unnatural, occurs at the close of the 86th (87th) psalm. 
The vulgate translation of the last verse, differing en- 
tirely from the English, is this: "As the habitation of 
all who rejoice is in thee." This sentence of the 
Psalmist is thus taken up in the Roman Ritual : " As 
the habitation of all us who rejoice is in thee, Holy 
Mother of God." 

The object proposed by the Church from of old in 
concluding each psalm by an ascription of glory to the 
eternal Trinity, was to lead the worshipper to apply the 
sentiments of the psalm to the work of our salvation 
accomplished by the three Persons of the Godhead. 
The analogous end of these anthems in the present 
service of the Church of Rome is to fix the thoughts 
of the worshipper upon Mary. This practice unhappily 
sanctions the excesses into which Bonaventura and 
others have run in their departures from the purity 
and integrity of primitive worship. 

Cardinal du Perron informs us, that at the altar in the 
office of the mass, prayer is not made directly to any 
saint, but only obliquely, the address being always made 
to God. But if prayers are offered in other parts of 
the service directly to them, it is difficult to see what 
is gained by that announcement. Surely it is trifling 



348 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

to make such immaterial distinctions. If as a priest 
I could address the following prayer to the Virgin in 
preparing for offering mass, why should I not offer a 
prayer to the same being during its celebration ? 

" O mother of pity and mercy, blessed Virgin Mary, 
I a miserable and unworthy sinner, flee to thee with 
my whole heart and affection, and I pray thy most 
sweet pity, that as thou didst, stand by thy most sweet 
Son hanging upon the cross, so thou woulclest vouch- 
safe mercifully to stand by me a miserable priest, and 
by all priests who here and in all the holy Church 
offer Him this day, that, aided by thy grace, we may 
be enabled to offer a worthy and acceptable victim 
in the sight of the most high and undivided Trinity. 
Amen 1 ." 

This is called, in the Roman Breviary, " A Prayer 
to the blessed Virgin before the celebration of the 
mass," and is immediately followed by another prayer 
directed to be offered to any saint, male or female, 
whose feast is on that day celebrated. "Q Holy N. 
behold I, a miserable sinner, deriving confidence from 
thy merits, now offer the most holy sacrament of the 
body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, for thy 
honour and glory. I humbly and devotedly pray 
thee that thou wouldest deign to intercede for me 
to-day, that I may be enabled to offer so great a sacri- 



1 O Mater pietatis et misericordiae, beatissima Virgo Maria, ego 
miser et indignus peccator ad te confugio toto corde et affectu. Et 
precor dulcissimam pietatem tuam, ut sicut dulcissimo Filio tuo in 
cruce pendenti astitisti, ita et mihi misero sacerdoti et sacerdotibus 
omnibus hie fit in tota sancta ecclesia ipsum hodie offerentibus, cle- 
menter assistere digneris, uttua gratia adjuti dignam et acceptabilem 
hostiam in conspectu summse et individuse Trinitatis ofFerre valeamus. 
Amen. — Rom. Brev. Hus. Hiem. p. cexxxiii. 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 349 

lice worthily and acceptably, and to praise Him eternally 
with thee and with all his elect, and that I may live 
with Him for ever '." 

Such, Christian brethren, is the result of our inquiries 
into the real practice of the Church of Rome with regard 
to the worship of the Virgin Mary at the present day, 
in every part of the world where allegiance to that 
Church is acknowledged. Can we wonder that indi- 
viduals, high in honour with that Church, have carried 
out the same worship to far greater lengths ? I have 
ever present to my mind the principle of fixing upon 
the Church of Rome herself that onlv which is to be 
found in her canons, acknowledged decrees, and formu- 
laries. And unhappily of that which directly contra- 
venes the Gospel-rule and primitive practice, far more 
than enough is found in her authorized rituals to 
compel all who hold to the Gospel and the integrity 
of primitive times, to withdraw their assent and con- 
sent from her worship. But with this principle be- 
fore us, surely common justice and common prudence 
require that we should see for ourselves the practical 
workings of the system. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them," is a principle no less sanctioned by the Gospel 
than suggested by common sense and experience And, 
indeed, the shocking lengths to which priests, bishops, 
cardinals, and canonized persons have gone in this 
particular of the worship of the Virgin, might well 

1 O sancte N. ecce ego miser peccator de tuis meritis confisus, 
offero nunc sacratissimum sacramentum corporis et sanguinis Domini 
nostri Jesu Christi pro tuo honore et gloria ; precor te humiliter 
et devote ut pro me hodie intercedere digneris, ut tantum sacrificium 
digne et acceptabiliter offerre valeam, ut Eum tecum et cum omni- 
bus electis ejus seternaliter laudare et cum eo semper regnare valeam. 
— Hiem. ccxxxiii. 



350 AUTHORIZED WORSHIP [PART III. 

cause every upright and enlightened Roman Catholic 
to look anxiously to the foundation ; to determine 
honestly, though with tender caution and pious care, 
for himself, whether the corruption be not in the 
well-head, whether the stream do not flow impreg- 
nated with the poison from the very fountain itself; 
whether the prayers authorized and directed by the 
Church of Rome to be offered to the Virgin be not 
in themselves at variance with the first principles of 
the Gospel — Faith in one God, the giver of every good, 
and in one Mediator and Intercessor between God and 
men, the man Christ Jesus, whose blood cleanseth from 
all sin: in a word, to see whether all the aberrations 
of her children in this department of religious duty 
have not their prototype in the laws and ordinances, 
the rules and injunctions, the example and practice of 
their mother herself. 

Indeed I am compelled here to say, that, however 
revolting to us as believers in Jesus, and as worshippers 
of the one true God, are those extravagant excesses 
into which the votaries of the Virgin Mary have run, 
I have found few of their most unequivocal ascrip- 
tions of divine worship to her, for a justification of 
which they cannot with reason appeal to the authorized 
ritual of the Church of Rome. 

In leaving this point of our inquiry, I would suggest 
two considerations : 1st, If it was intended that the 
invocation of the Virgin should be exclusively confined 
to requests, praying her to pray and intercede by 
prayer for the petitioners, why should language be 
addressed to her which in its plain, obvious, gramma- 
tical, and common sense interpretation conveys the 
form of direct prayers to her for benefits believed to 
be at her disposal? And, 2ndly, If the Church had 



CHAP. V.] OF THE VIRGIN MARY. 351 

intended that her members, when they suppliantly 
invoked the Virgin Mary, and had recourse to her aid, 
should have offered to her direct and immediate prayers 
that she would grant temporal and spiritual benefits, 
to be dispensed at her own will, and by her own autho- 
rity and power, in that case, what words could the 
Church have put into the mouth of the petitioners 
which would more explicitly and unequivocally have 
conveyed that idea ? 



SECTION II. 
WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN, CONTINUED. 

I have no intention of dwelling at any length on the 
extraordinary excesses to which the adoration of the 
Virgin Mary has been carried in the Church of Rome, 
I do not mean by obscure and illiterate or fanatical 
individuals, but by her celebrated prelates, doctors, 
and saints. My researches have brought to my know- 
ledge such a mass of error and corruption in the 
worship of Christians as I never before had any con- 
ception of; and rather than bring it all forward, and 
exhibit it to others, I would turn my own eyes from 
it altogether. Still many reasons render it absolutely 
necessary that we should not pass over the subject en- 
tirely in silence. Few in England, I believe, are aware 
of the real facts of the case ; and it well becomes us 
to guard ourselves and others against such melancholy 
results as would appear to be inseparable from the 
invocation and worship of the Virgin. If indeed we 
could be justified in regarding such palpable instances 
of her worship in its most objectionable form as the 



352 WORSHIP OF [part III. 

marks of former and less enlightened times, most 
gladly would I draw a veil over them, and hide them 
from our sight for ever. But when I find the solemn 
addresses of the present chief authorities in the Church, 
nay, the epistles of the present sovereign Pontiff himself, 
cherishing, countenancing, and encouraging the self- 
same evil departures from primitive truth and worship, 
it becomes a matter not of choice, but of necessity, to 
give examples at least of the deplorable excesses into 
which the highest and most honoured in that com- 
munion have been betrayed. On the present ] Pope's 
encyclical letter we have already observed ; and in 
this place I propose to examine only one more of 
those many excesses meeting us on every side, which 
characterize the public worship of the Virgin. The in- 
stance to which I refer seems to take a sort of middle 
station between the authorized enjoined services of the 
Church of Rome, and the devotions of individuals 
and family worship. It partakes on the one hand 
far too much of a public character to be considered in 
the light of private religious exercises ; and on the 
other it wants that authority which would rank it 
among the appointed services of the Church. The de- 
votional parts of the services are found neither in the 
Missals nor the Breviaries, and the adoption and cele- 
bration of the service seems to be left to the option 
and care of individuals. But the service is performed 
in the Churches, — a Priest presides, — the Host is pre- 
sented to the adorations of the people, — and a sermon 
is preached by an appointed minister. The service to 
which I am referring is performed every evening 
through the entire month of May, and is celebrated 
expressly in honour of the Virgin Mary. 
! A.D. 1840. 



CHAP. V.] THE VIRGIN. 353 

The month of May is dedicated to her, and is called 
Mary's month. Temporary altars are raised to her 
honour, surrounded by flowers and adorned with gar- 
lands and drapery ; her image usually standing before 
the altar. Societies are formed chiefly for the celebra- 
tion of the Virgin's praises, and in some Churches the 
effect, both to the eye and to the ear, corresponds 
with the preparation. One thing only is wanting — 
the proper object of worship. I have now before 
me a book of hymns published professedly for the re- 
ligious fraternities in Paris, and used in the Churches 
there l . Many of these hymns are addressed to the 
Virgin alone; some without any reference to the Son 
of God and Man, the only Saviour, and without any 
allusion to the God of Christians ; indeed, an address 
to a heathen Goddess more entirely destitute of 
Christianity can scarcely be conceived. I copy one 
hymn entire. 

" Around the altars of Mary 

Let us, her children, press ; 

To that mother so endeared 

Let us address the sweetest prayers. 

Let a lively and holy mirth 

Animate us in this holy day : 

There exists no sadness 

For a heart full of her love. 

Let us adorn this sanctuary with flowers ; 

Let us deck her revered altar ; 

Let us redouble our efforts to please her. 

Be this month consecrated to her ; 

Let the perfume of these crowns 

Form a delicious incense, 

1 Nouveau Recueil de Cantiques a.l'usage des confreries des 
Paroisses de Paris. Paris, 1839. 

a a 



354 WORSHIP OF [part III. 

Which ascending even to her throne 

May carry to her both our hearts and our prayers. 

Let the holy name of Mary 

Be for us a name of salvation ! 

Let our softened soul 

Ever pay to her a sweet tribute of love. 

Let us join the choirs of angels 

The more to celebrate her beauty ; 

And may our songs of praise 

Resound in eternity. 

O holy Virgin ! O our mother ! 

Watch over us from the height of heaven ; 

And when from this sojourning of misery, 

We present our prayers to you ; 

O sweet, O divine Mary! 

Lend an ear to our sighs, 

And after this life 

Make us to taste of immortal pleasures '." 

In the course of the present work I have already 
suggested the propriety of trying the real import, 

1 Autour des autels de Marie 

Nous ses enfants, empressons-nous ; 
A cette Mere si cherie, 

Adressons les voeux les plus doux. 
Qu'une vive et sainte allegresse 

Nous anime dans ce saint jour; 
II n'existe point de tristesse 

Pour un coeur plein de son amour. 
Ornons des fleurs ce sanctuaire, 

Parous son autel revere, 
Redoublons d'efforts pour lui plaire. 

Que ce mois lui soi, consacre ; 
Que le parfume de ces couronnes 

Forme un encens delicieux, 
Qui s'elevant jusqu'a son trone, 

Lui porte et nos coeurs et nos voeux. 



CHAP. V.] THE VIRGIN. 355 

the true intent, and meaning and force of an ad- 
dress to a Saint, by substituting the holiest name 
ever uttered on earth, for the name of the Saint to 
whom such address is offered ; and if the same words, 
without any change, form a prayer fit to be offered by 
us sinners to the Saviour of the world, then to ask 
ourselves, Can this be right ? I would earnestly recom- 
mend the application of the same test here; and in 
many other of the prayers now offered (for many such 
there are now offered) by Roman Catholics to the Virgin. 
Suppose, instead of offering these songs of praise and 
prayer, and self-devotion to Mary in the month of May, 
we were to offer them, on the day of his nativity, to our 
blessed Lord, would they not form an act of faith in 
Him as our Saviour and our God ? 
" Around the altar of Jesus, 
Let us, his children, press ; 
To that Saviour so endeared 
Let us address the sweetest prayers. 

Que le nom sacre de Marie 

Soit pour nous un nom de salut ; 
Que toujours notre ame attendrie, 

D'amour lui paie un doux tribut. 
Unissons-nous aux choeurs des anges, 

Pour mieux celebrer sa beaute. 
Et puissent nos chants de louanges 

Retentir dans l'eternite. 
O Vierge sainte ! 6 notre Mere ! 

Veillez sur nous du haut des cieux ; 
Et de ce sejour de misere, 

Quand nous vous presentons nos vceux, 
O douce, 6 divine Marie ! 

Pretez l'oreille a nos soupirs ; — 
Et faites qu'apres cette vie, 

Nous goutions d'immortels plaisirs. 
• — " Cantiques a l'usage des Confreries." Paris, 1839, p. 175. 

Aa2 



356 BONAVENTURA. [PART III, 

Let a lively and holy mirth 

Animate us in this holy day : 

There exists no sadness 

For a heart full of his love. 

Let the holy name of Jesus 

Be for us a name of salvation ! 

Let our softened soul 

Ever pay to Him a sweet tribute of love. 

O holy Jesus ! O our Saviour ! 

Watch over us from the height of heaven ; 

And when from this sojourning of misery, 

We present our prayers to Thee ; 

O sweet, O divine Redeemer, 

Lend an ear to our sighs ; and after this life, 

Make Thou us to taste of immortal pleasures." 



SECTION III. 
BONAVENTURA. 

I will now briefly call your attention to the devo- 
tional works of the celebrated Bonaventura. He is 
no ordinary man ; and the circumstances under which 
his works were commended to the world are indeed 
remarkable. I know not how a Church can give the 
impress of its own name and approval in a more fall 
or unequivocal manner to the works of any human 
being, than the Church of Rome has stamped her 
authority on the works of this her saint. 

In the "Acta Sanctorum 1 ", it is stated, that this 
celebrated man was born in 1221, and died in 1274. 
He passed through all degrees of ecclesiastical dignities, 

1 Antwerp, 1723, July 14, p. 811 — 823. 



CHAP. Y.] BOXAVENTURA. 357 

short only of the pontifical throne itself. He was of the 
order of St. Francis, and refused the archbishopric of 
York, when it was offered to him by Pope Clement the 
Fourth, in 1265 ; whose successor, Gregory the Tenth, 
elevated him to the dignity of cardinal bishop. His 
biographer expresses his astonishment, that such a 
man's memory should have been so long buried with 
his body ; but adds, that the tardiness of his honours 
was compensated by their splendour. 

More than two centuries after his death, his claims 
to canonization were urged upon Sixtus the Fourth ; 
and that Pope raised him to the dignity of saint ; the 
diploma of his canonization bearing date 18 kalends 
of May, 1482, the eleventh year of that pope's reign. 

Before a saint is canonized by the Pope, it is usually 
required, that miracles wrought by him, or upon him, 
or at his tomb, be proved to the satisfaction of the 
Roman court '. We need not dwell on the nature of 
an inquiry into a matter-of-fact, alleged to have been 
done by an individual two hundred years before ; and 
whose memory is said to have lain buried with his 
corpse. Among the miracles specified, it is recorded, 
that on one occasion, when he was filled with solemn 
awe and fear at the celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
God, by an angel, took a particle of the consecrated 
host from the hands of the priest, and gently placed it 
in the holy man's mouth. But, with these transac- 
tions, I am not anxious to interfere, except so far as to 
ascertain the degree of authority with which any pious 
Roman Catholic must be induced to invest Bona- 
ventura as a teacher and instructor in the doctrines of 
Christianity, authorized and appointed by his Church. 
The case stands thus : — Pope Sixtus IV. states in his 

1 See the canonization of St. Bonaventura in the Acta Sanctorum. 



358 BONAVENTURA. [PART III. 

diploma, that the proctor of the order of Minors, proved 
by a dissertation on the passage of St. John, "There 
are three that bear record in heaven," that the blessed 
Trinity had borne testimony to the fact of Bonaventura 
being a saint in heaven : the Father proving it by 
the attested miracles ; the Son, in the wisdom of his 
doctrine ; the Holy Spirit, by the goodness of his 
life. The pontiff then adds, in his own words, " He so 
wrote on divine subjects, that the Holy Spirit seems 
to have spoken in him 1 ." A testimony referred to by 
Pope Sixtus the Fifth. 

This latter pontiff was crowned May 1, 1585, more 
than a century after the canonization of Bonaventura, 
and more than three centuries after his death. By his 
order, the works of Bonaventura were "most care- 
fully emendated." The decretal letters, a. d. 1588, 
pronounced him to be an acknowledged doctor of 
Holy Church, directing his authority to be cited 
and employed in all places of education, and in all 
ecclesiastical discussions and studies. The same act 
offers plenary indulgence to all who assist at the mass 
on his feast, in certain specified places, with other 
minor immunities on the conditions annexed 2 . 

In these documents Bonaventura 3 is called the Se- 
raphic Doctor ; and I repeat my doubt, whether it is 
possible for any human authority to give a more full, 
entire, and unreserved sanction to the works of any 
human being than the Church of Rome has given to 

1 Page 831. " Ea de divinis rebus scripsit, ut in eo Spiritus 
Sanctus locutus videatur." 

2 Page 837. 

3 The edition of his works which I have used was published at 
Mentz in 1609; and the passages referred to are in vol. vi. between 
pp. 400 and 500. 



CHAP. V.] BONAVENTURA. 359 

the writings of Bonaventura. And what do those 
works present to us, on the subject of the Invocation 
and worship of the Virgin Mary ? 

Taking every one of the one hundred and fifty 
psalms ', Bonaventura so changes the commencement 
of each, as to address them not as the inspired Psalmist 
did, to the Lord Jehovah, the One only Lord God 
Almighty, but to the Virgin Mary ; inserting much of 
his own composition, and then adding the Gloria 
Patri to each. It is very painful to refer to these 
prostitutions of any part of the Holy Book of revealed 
truth ; but we must not be deterred from looking this 
evil in the face. A few examples, however, will 
suffice. 

In the 30th psalm. " In thee, O Lord, have I trusted ; 
let me not be confounded for ever," &c, the Psalter of 
the Virgin substitutes these words 2 : 

" In thee, O Lady, have I trusted ; let me not be 
confounded for ever : in thy grace take me. 

" Thou art my fortitude and my refuge ; my consola- 
tion and my protection. 

1 It is curious to find the Cardinal Du Perron, in his answer to our 
King James, declaring that he had never seen nor met with this 
Psalter in his life, and he was sure it was never written by Bonaven- 
tura ; alleging that it was not mentioned by Trithemius or Gesner. 
The Vatican editors, however, have set that question at rest. They 
assure us that they have thrown into the appendix all the works 
about the genuineness of which there was any doubt, and that Bona- 
ventura wrote many works not mentioned by Trithemius, which they 
have published from the Vatican press. Of this Psalter there is no 
doubt. See Cardinal Du Perron, Replique a la Rep. du Roi de 
Grand Bretagne. Paris, 1620, p. 974. 

2 In te, Domina, speravi ; non confundar in seternum, &c. &c. 
In manus tuas, Domina, commendo spiritum meum, totam vitam 

meam, et diem ultimum meum. — P. 480. 



360 BONAVENTURA. [PART III. 

"To thee, O Lady, have I cried, while my heart 
was in heaviness ; and thou didst hear me from the 
top of the eternal hills. 

" Bring thou me out of the snare which they have 
hid for me ; for thou art my succour. 

" Into thy hands, O Lady, I commend my spirit, my 
whole life, and my last day. — Gloria Patri," &c. 

In the 31st psalm we read, "Blessed are they 
whose hearts love thee, O Virgin Mary ; their sins shall 
be mercifully blotted out by thee . . . .' " 

In the 35th, v. 2. " Incline thou the countenance of 
God upon us ; compel him to have mercy upon sinners. 
O Lady, thy mercy is in the heaven, and thy grace is 
spread over the whole earth 2 ." 

In the 67th, instead of, " Let God arise, and let his 
enemies be scattered," the Psalter of the Virgin has, 

" Let Mary arise, and let her enemies be scattered 3 ." 

In the opening of the 93rd psalm there is a most 
extraordinary, rather, as it sounds to me, a most im- 
pious and blasphemous comparison of the Supreme 
God with the Virgin Mary, in reference to the very 
Attribute, which shines first, last, and brightest in him, 
— His eternal mercy. Nay, it draws the contrast in 
favour of the Virgin, and against God. Most glad 
should I be, to find that I had misunderstood this 
passage ; and that it admits of another acceptation 4 . 
But I fear its real meaning is beyond controversy. 

1 Beati quorum corda te diligunt, Virgo Maria ; peccata ipsorum 
A te misericorditer diluentur. — P. 481. 

2 Inclina vultum Dei super nos. Coge ilium peccatoribu.s misereri ; 
Domina, in ccelo misericordia tua, et gratia diffusa est super terram. 

3 Exurgat Maria, et dissipentur inimici ejus. — P. 483. 

i A similar idea indeed pervades some addresses to the Virgin of 
the present day, representing the great and only potentate as her 
heavenly husband, in himself full of rage, but softened into tenderness 



CHAP. V.] BONAVENTURA. 361 

" The Lord is a God of vengeance ; but thou, O 
Mother of Mercy, bendest to be merciful '." 

The well known and dearly valued penitentiary 
psalm (129th) "De profundis," is thus addressed to 
Mary :— 

" Out of the depths have I called to thee, O Lady : 

" O Lady, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attent 
to the voice of thy praise and glorifying : deliver me 
from the hand of my enemies : confound their imagi- 
nations and attempts against me. Rescue me in the 
evil day; and, in the day of death, forget not my 
soul. Carry me into the haven of safety : let my 
name be enrolled among the just V 

towards her votaries by her influence. See a hymn, in the Paris 
collection already referred to, p. 353, &c. of this work (Nouveau 
Recueil de Cantiques, p. 183). 

Daignez, Marie, en ce jour Vouchsafe, Mary, on this day 

Ecouter nos soupirs, To hear our sighs, 

Et seconder nos desirs. And to second our desires. 

Daignez, Marie, en ce jour Vouchsafe, Mary, on this day 

Recevoir notre encens, notre To receive our incense, our love. 

amour. 
Du celeste epoux Calm the rage 

Calmez le courroux, Of thy heavenly husband, 

Qu'il se montre doux Let Him show himself kind 

A tous qui sont a vous. To all those who are thine. 

Du celeste epoux Of thy heavenly husband 

Calmez le courroux, Calm the rage, 

Que son cceur s'attendrisse sur Let his heart be softened towards 
nous. us. 

1 Deus ultionum Dominus ; sed tu, Mater Misericordias, ad mise- 
randum inflectis. — P. 485. 

2 De profundis clamavi ad te, Domina : Domina, exaudi vocem 
meam. Fiant aures tuae intendentes in vocem laudis et glorifica- 
tionis tuae. Libera me de manu adversariorum meorum : confunde 
ingenia et conatus eorum contra me. Erue me in die mala : et in die 
mortis ne obliviscaris animae meae. Deduc me ad portum salutis : 
inter justos scribatur nomen meum. — P. 489. 



362 BONAVENTURA. [PART III. 

But, as the penitential psalms are thus turned, from 
Him to whom the Psalmist addressed them, so his 
hymns of praise to Jehovah, are made to flow through 
the same channel to the Virgin. And all nature in 
the sea, on the earth, in the heavens, and heaven of 
heavens, is called upon to praise and glorify Mary. 
Thus, in the 148th psalm, we read,* — 

" Praise our Lady of heaven, glorify her in the high- 
est. Praise her, all ye men and cattle, ye birds of 
the heaven, and fishes of the sea. Praise her, sun and 
moon ; ye stars and circles of the planets. Praise her, 
cherubim and seraphim, thrones and dominions, and 
powers. Praise her, all ye legions of angels. Praise 
her, all ye orders of spirits above '." 

The last sentence of the psalms is thus rendered, — 

" Let every spirit [or every thing that hath breath 2 ] 
praise our Lady." 

To this Psalter are added many hymns changed in 
the same manner. One, entitled, "A Canticle, like 
that of Habakkuk iii." presents to us an address to the 
Virgin Mary, of the very words which our blessed 
Saviour most solemnly addressed to his heavenly 
Father. 

Lord, I have heard thy O Lady, I have heard thy re- 
speech, and was afraid, &c. &c. port, and was astonished ; I con- 
sidered thy works, O Lady, and 
I was afraid at thy work. In the 
midst of the years thou hast re- 
vived it. 

1 Laudate Dominam nostram de ccelis: glorificate earn in excelsis. 
Laudate earn omnes homines et j umenta : volucres cceli et pisces maris. 
Laudate earn sol et luna : stellae, et circuli planetarium Laudate earn 
cherubim et seraphim : throni et dominationes, et potestates. Lau- 
date earn omnes legiones angelorum. Laudate earn omnes ordines 
spirituum supernorum. — P. 491. 

2 Omnis spiritus laudet Dominam nostram. 



CHAP. V.] BONAVENTURA. 363 

I will confess to thee, O Lady, 
because thou hast hid these things 
from the wise, and hast revealed 
them to babes. 

Thy glory hath covered the 
heavens, and the earth is full of 
thy mercy. 

Thou, O Virgin, wentest forth 
for the salvation of thy people, 
for salvation with thy Christ [thy 
anointed]. 

O thou Blessed, our salvation 
rests in thy hands. Remember 
our poverty, O thou pious One. 

Whom thou willest, he 
shall be saved ; and he from 
whom thou turnest away thy 
countenance, goeth into de- 
struction '. 

The song of the Three Children is altered in the 
same manner. In it as well as in the Canticle of 
Zacharias, these prayers are introduced ; 

" O Mother of Mercy, have mercy upon us miserable 
sinners ; who neglect to repent of our past sins, and 
commit every day many to be repented of 2 ." 

1 Domina, audivi auditionem tuam, et obstupui : consideravi opera 
tua, et expavi, Domina, opus tuum : circa medium annorum vivifi- 
casti illud. 

Confitebor tibi, Domina : quia abscondisti hsec a sapientibus : et 
revelasti ea parvulis. Operuit ccelos gloria tua, et misericordia tua 
plena est terra. 

Egressa es, Virgo, in salutem populi tui : in salutem cum Christo 
tuo. O Benedicta, in manibus tuis est reposita nostra salus ; re- 
cordare, pia, paupertatis nostras. 

Quern vis, ipse salvus erit, et a quo avertis vultum tuum, vadit in 
interitum. — G. P., &c. 

2 Miserere, misericordiae Mater, nobis miseris peccatoribus, qui 
retroacta peccata pcenitere negligimus,- ac multa quotidie pcenitenda 
committimus. 



364 BONAVENTURA. [PART III. 

The Te Deum is thus lamentably perverted ! : 

" We praise thee, Mother of God ; we acknowledge 
thee, Mary the Virgin. 

"All the earth doth worship thee, spouse of the 
eternal Father. 

" To thee all Angels and Archangels, Thrones and 
Principalities, faithfully do service 

" To thee the whole angelic creation with incessant 
voice proclaim, 

" Holy ! Holy ! Holy ! Mary, parent, mother of God, 
and virgin ! 

" Thou with thy Son sittest at the right 

hand of the Father 

" O Lady, save thy people 2 , that we may partake of 
the inheritance of thy Son. 

" And rule us and guard us for ever 

" Day by day we salute thee, O pious One ; and we 
desire to praise thee in mind and voice even for ever. 

" Vouchsafe, O sweet Mary, now and for ever, to 
keep us without sin. 

"Have mercy upon us, O pious One, have mercy 
upon us. 

" Let thy great mercy be with us, because we put our 
trust in thee, O Virgin Mary. 

" In thee, sweet Mary, do we hope, defend thou us 
eternally. 

1 Te Matrem Dei laudamus ; Te Mariam Virginem profitemur. 

2 Salvum fac populum tuum, Domina, ut simus participes baere- 
ditatis Filii tui, , 

Et rege nos et custodi nos in seternum. 

Dignare, Dulcis Maria, nunc et semper nos sine delicto con- 
servare. Miserere, Pia, nobis ! miserere nobis ! Fiat misericordia 
tua magna nobiscum, quia in te, Virgo Maria, confidimus. In 
te, Dulcis Maria, speramus, nos defendas in externum. Te decet 
laus, te decet imperium, tibi virtus et gloria in saecula saeculorum, 
Amen. 



CHAP. V.] BONAVENTURA. 3(35 

" Praise becomes thee, empire becomes thee ; to thee 
be virtue and glory for ever and ever. Amen." 

Can this by any the most subtle refinement be un- 
derstood to be a mere request to her to pray for us ? 

The Athanasian Creed is employed in the same 
manner ; and it is very remarkable that the Assump- 
tion itself of the Virgin into heaven is there specified 
as one of the points to be believed on pain of losing all 
hopes of salvation. 

" Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is ne- 
cessary that he hold firm the faith concerning the Virgin 
Mary : which except a man keep whole and undefiled, 
without doubt he shall perish everlastingly l 

" Whom at length He took up (assumpsit) unto hea- 
ven, and she sitteth at the right hand of her Son, not 
ceasing to pray to her Son for us 2 . 

" This is the faith concerning Mary the Virgin, which 
except every one believe faithfully and firmly he cannot 
be saved 3 ." 

In the Litany addressed to her, these sentences are 
found. 

" Holy Mary, whom all things praise and venerate, 
pray for us, — be propitious, — spare us, O Lady. 

" From all evil deliver us, O Lady. 

" In the devastating hour of death, deliver us, O Lady. 

" From the horrible torments of hell, deliver us, O 
Lady. 

"We sinners do beseech thee to hear us. 

" That thou wouldest vouchsafe to give eternal rest 

1 Quicunque vult salvus esse, ante omnia opus est ut teneat de 
Maria firmam fidem. 

2 Quam demum ipse in coelum assumpsit, et sedit ad dexteram 
Filii, non cessans pro nobis Filium exorare. 

3 Haec est fides de Maria Virgine : quam nisi quisque fideliter 
firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non potent. 



366 BONAVENTURA. [PART III. 

to all the faithful departed, we beseech thee to hear 
us '. &c. &c." 

I will add to this catalogue of prayers and praises to 
the Virgin, only the translation of one prayer more 
from the same canonized Saint ; it contains a passage 
often referred to, but the existence of which has 
been denied. It stands, however, in his works, vol. vi. 
page 466. 

" Therefore, O Empress, and our most benign 
Lady, by thy right of mother command thy most 
beloved Son 2 , our Lord, Jesus Christ, that He 
vouchsafe to raise our minds from the love of earthly 
things to heavenly desires, who liveth and reigneth." 



Now let any man of common understanding and 
straightforward principles say, whether any, the most 
ingenious refinement can interpret all this to mean 
merely that Bonaventura invoked the Virgin Mary to 
pray for him, or for his fellow-creatures. It looks as 
though he were resolved on set purpose to exalt her to 
an equality with the Almighty, when we find him not 
once, not casually, not in the fervent rapture of momen- 
tary excitement, but deliberately, through one hundred 
and fifty Psalms, applying to Mary the very words dic- 
tated by the Holy Spirit to the Psalmist, and conse- 

1 Sancta Maria, quam omnia laudant 
Et venerantur, ora pro nobis. 
Propitia esto. Parce nobis, Domina. 
Ab omni malo libera nos, Domina. 
In hora mortis devastante libera nos, Domina. 
Ab inferni horribili cruciamine libera nos, Domina. 
Peccatores te rogamus, audi nos. 
Ut cunctis fidelibus defunctis requiem 
iEternam donare digneris, te rogamus, audi nos. 
2 Jure matris impera tuo dilectissimo Filio. 



CHAP. V.] BONAVENTURA. 367 

crated to the worship of the one supreme God ; and 
then selecting the most solemn expressions by which 
the Christian Church approaches the Lord of heaven 
and earth, our Father, our Saviour, our Sanctifier: 
employing too the very words of her most solemn form 
of belief in the ever-blessed Trinity, and substituting 
Mary's name for the God of Christians. On the words, 
" By thy right of mother command thy Son," beyond 
the assertion of the fact that there they are to this day, 
I wish to add nothing, because the very denial of their 
existence often repeated shows, that many Roman 
Catholics themselves regard them as objectionable. 

But, if such a man as Bonaventura, one of the most 
learned and celebrated men of his age, could be tempted 
by the views cherished by the Church of Rome, to in- 
dulge in such language, what can be fairly expected 
of the large mass of persons who find that language 
published to the world with the highest sanction which 
their religion can give, as the work of a man whom the 
Almighty declared when on earth, by miracles, to be 
a chosen vessel, and to be under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit ; and of whom they are taught by the infal- 
lible testimony l of his canonization, that he is now 
reigning with Christ in heaven, and is himself the lawful 
and appointed object of religious invocation. I pro- 
fess to you that I see noway by which Christians can hold 
and encourage this doctrine of the Invocation of Saints, 
without at the same time countenancing and cherishing 
what, were I to join in such invocation, would stain 
my soul with the guilt of idolatry. If the doctrine 
were confessedly Scriptural, come what would come, 
our duty would be to maintain it at all hazards, 

1 Bellarmin, in his Church Triumphant, maintains that in the act 
of Canonization, the Church is infallible. Vol. ii. p. 871. 



368 BONAVENTURA. [PART III. 

and to brave every danger rather than from fear of 
consequences to renounce what we believe to have 
come from God ; securing the doctrine at all events, 
and then putting forth our very best to guard against its 
perversion and abuse. But surely, it well becomes our 
brethren of the Church of Rome, to examine with most 
rigid and unsparing scrutiny into the very foundation 
of such a doctrine as this; a doctrine which in its 
mildest and most guarded form is considered by a very 
large number of their fellow Christians, as a dishonour- 
ing of God and of his Son, our Saviour ; and which in 
its excess, an excess witnessed in the books of learned 
and sainted authors, and in the every day practice of 
worshippers, seems to be in no wise distinguishable 
from the practices of acknowledged polytheism, and 
pagan worship. If that foundation, after honest and 
persevering examination, approves itself as based sure 
and deep on the word of God, and the faith and prac- 
tice of the apostles and the Church founded by them 
from the first, I have not another word to say, beyond 
a fervent prayer that the God in whom we trust would 
pour the bright beams of his Gospel abundantly into 
the hearts of all who receive that Gospel as the word 
of life. But were they my dying words to my dearest 
friend who had espoused that doctrine, I would say to 
him, Look well yourself to the foundation, because I 
am, after long examination, convinced, beyond a shadow 
of doubt that the doctrine and practice of the Invoca- 
tion of Saints and Angels is as contrary to the doctrine 
and practice of the primitive Church, as it is in direct 
opposition to the express words of Scripture, and totally 
abhorrent from the spirit which pervades the whole of 
the Old, and the whole of the New Testament of God's 
eternal truth. 



CHAP. V.] WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 369 

SECTION IV. 

BIEL, DAMIANUS. BERNARDINUS DE BUSTIS, BERNARDINUS 

SENENSIS, &C. 

Unhappily these excesses in the worship of the 
Virgin Mary are not confined to Bonaventura, or to 
his age. We have too many examples of the same 
extravagant exaltation of her as an object of adoration 
and praise in men, whose station and abilities seemed 
to hold them forth to the world as burning and shining 
lights. Again, let me repeat, that in thus soliciting 
your attention to the doctrines and expressed feelings 
of a few from among the host of the Virgin's worship- 
pers, I am far from believing that the enlightened 
Roman Catholics in England now are ready to respond 
to such sentiments. My desire is that all persons should 
be made aware of the excesses into which even cele- 
brated teachers have been tempted to run, when they once 
admitted the least inroad to be made upon the integrity 
of God's worship; and I am anxious also, without offence, 
but with all openness, to caution my countrymen against 
encouraging that revival of the worship of the Virgin 
in England, to promote which the highest authorities 
in the Church of Rome have lately expressed their 
solicitude, intimating, at the same time, their regret 
that the worship of the Virgin at the present time has, 
in England, degenerated from its exaltation in former 
ages, and that England is now far behind her conti- 
nental neighbours in her worship \ Though these 
excessive departures from Gospel truth and the pri- 
mitive worship of one God by one Mediator may not 
be the doctrines of all who belong to the Church of 
Rome, yet they are the tenets of some of her most 
1 See Appendix. 

Bb 



370 WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. [PART III. 

celebrated doctors, of men who were raised to her 
highest dignities in their lifetime, and solemnly en- 
rolled by her among the saints of glory after their 
death. Their words and their actions are appealed to 
now in support of similar tenets and doctrines, though 
few, in this country at least, are found to put them forth 
in all their magnitude and fulness. But even in their 
mildest and least startling form these doctrines are 
awfully dangerous. 

The fact is, that the direct tendency of the wor- 
ship of the Virgin, as practically illustrated in the 
Church of Rome, is to make God himself an object 
of fear, and the Virgin an object of love ; to invest 
Him, who is the Father of mercy and God of all 
comfort, with awfulness, and majesty, and with the 
terrors of eternal justice, and in direct and striking 
contrast to array the Virgin mother with mercy and 
benignity, and compassionate tenderness. Christians 
cannot be too constantly and too carefully on their 
guard against doing this wrong to our heavenly Father. 
His own inspired word invites us to regard Him not 
only as the God of love, but as Love itself. " God is 
love ] ;" and so far from terrifying us by representations 
of his tremendous majesty, and by declarations that we 
cannot ourselves draw nigh to God ; so far from bidding 
us to approach Him with our suits and supplications 
through mediators whom we should regard as having, 
more than our blessed Redeemer, a fellow-feeling with 
us, and at the same time resistless influence with Him ; 
his own invitation and assurance is, " 2 Come unto me, 
and I will give you rest:" " 3 No one cometh unto the 
Father but by me:" " 4 Him that cometh to me I will 

1 1 John iv. 8. 2 Matt. xi. 28. 

3 John xiv. 6. 2 John vi. 37. 



CHAP. V.] BIEL. 371 

in no wise cast out : " " l Let us come boldly unto the 
throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find 
grace to help in time of need." 

How entirely opposed to such passages as these, 
breathing the spirit that pervades the whole Bible, 
are those doctrines which represent the Virgin Mary 
as the Mediatrix by whom we must sue for the divine 
clemency; as the dispenser of all God's mercies and 
graces ; as the sharer of God's kingdom, as the fountain 
of pity, as the moderator of God's justice, and the 
appeaser of his wrath. " Show thyself a mother." 
" Compel thy Son to have pity." " By thy right of 
mother command thy Son." " God is a God of venge- 
ance ; but thou, Mary, dost incline to mercy ;" such 
expressions convey sentiments and associations shocking 
to our feelings, and from which our reason turns away, 
when we think of God's perfections, and the full atone- 
ment and omnipotent intercession of his Son Christ 
our Redeemer. But it must not be disguised, that these 
are the very sentiments in which the most celebrated 
defenders of the worship of the Virgin, in the Church 
of Rome, teach their disciples to acquiesce, and in which 
they must have themselves fully acquiesced, if they prac- 
tised what they taught. It is very painful to make such 
extracts as leave us no alternative in forming our opinions 
on this point ; but it is necessary to do so, otherwise 
we may injure the cause of truth by suppressing the 
reality ; a reality over which there seems to be a strong- 
disposition, in the present day, in part at least, to draw 
a veil ; an expedient which can only increase the danger. 

The first author, whose sentiments I would request you 
to weigh, is Gabriel Biel, a schoolman of great celebrity 2 . 

1 Heb. iv. 16. 

2 Tubingen, 1499. Gabriel Biel, born at Spires about a.d. 1425, 

Bb 2 



372 WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. [PART III. 

In his thirty-second lecture, on the Canon of the 
Mass, he thus expresses himself, referring to a ser- 
mon of St. Bernard, " The will of God was, that we 
should have all through Mary .... You were afraid 
to approach the Father, frightened by only hearing 
of Him. . . . He gave you Jesus for a Mediator. What 
could not such a Son obtain with such a Father? He 
will surely be heard for his own reverence-sake; for 
the Father loveth the Son. But, are you afraid to 
approach even Him? He is your brother and your 
flesh; tempted through all, that He might become 
merciful. This brother Mary gave to you. But, 
perhaps, even in Him you fear the divine Majesty, 
because, although He was made man, yet He remained 
God. You wish to have an advocate even to Him. 
Betake yourself to Mary. For, in Mary is pure 
humanity, not only pure from all contamination, but 
pure also by the singleness of her nature '. Nor should 
I, with any doubt say, she too will be heard for her 
own reverence-sake. The Son, surely, will hear the 
Mother, and the Father will hear the Son." 

In his 80th lecture, the same author comments on this 
prayer, which is still offered in the service of the Mass: 

" Deliver us, we beseech thee, O Lord, from all evils 
past, present, and future ; and by the intercession of the 
blessed and glorious ever-virgin mother of God, Mary, 
with thy blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and Andrew, 
and all saints, mercifully grant peace in our days, that, 
aided by the help of thy mercy, we may be both ever 

was in a. d. 1484 appointed the first Professor of Theology in the 
then newly founded University of Tubingen. He afterwards retired 
to a monastery, and died a. d. 1495. 

1 This is a very favourite argument in the present day, often 
heard in the pulpits on the Continent. 



CHAP. V.] BIEL. 373 

free from sin, and free from all disquietude. Through 
the same our Lord, &c." 

On this prayer Biel observes, "Again we ask, in 
this prayer, the defence of peace ; and since we cannot, 
nor do we presume to obtain this by our own merit, 
. . . therefore, in order to obtain this, we have re- 
course, in the second part of this prayer, to the suf- 
frages of all his saints, whom He hath constituted, in 
the court of his kingdom, as our mediators, most ac- 
ceptable to himself, whose prayers his love does not 
reject. But, of them, we fly, in the first place, to the 
most blessed Virgin, the Queen of Heaven, to whom 
the King of kings, the heavenly Father, has given the 
half of his kingdom ; which was signified in Hester, the 
queen, to whom, when she approached to appease king 
Asuerus, the king said to her, Even if thou shalt ask 
the half of my kingdom, it shall be given thee. So the 
heavenly Father, inasmuch as He has justice and mercy 
as the more valued possessions of his kingdom, retain- 
ing JUSTICE TO HIMSELF, GRANTED MERCY to the Virgin 

Mother 1 . We, therefore, ask for peace, by the inter- 
cession of the blessed and glorious Virgin." 

The very same partition of the kingdom of heaven, is 
declared to have been made between God himself and 
the Virgin by one who was dignified by the name of 
the " venerable and most Christian Doctor," John 
Gerson 2 , who died in 1429 ; excepting that, instead of 
justice and mercy, Gerson mentions power and mercy 
as the two parts of which God's kingdom consists, and 
that, whilst power remained with the Lord, the part of 
mercy ceded " to the mother of Christ, and the reigning 

1 Cum habeat justitiam et misericordiam tanquam potiora regni 
sui bona, justitia sibi retenta, misericordiam Matri Virgini concessit. 

2 Paris, 1606. Tract iv. Super "Magnificat," part iii. p. 7o4. 
See Fabricius, vol. iii. p. 49. Patav. 1754. 



374 WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. [PART III. 

spouse ; hence, by the whole Church, she is saluted as 
Queen of Mercy." 

I would next refer to a writer who lived four cen- 
turies before Biel, but whose works received the papal 
sanction so late as the commencement of the seven- 
teenth century, Petrus Damianus, Cardinal and Bishop. 
His works were published at the command of Pope 
Clement VIII., who died a. d. 1604, and were dedi- 
cated to his successor, Paul V., who gave the copyright 
for fifteen years to the Editor, Constantine Cajetan, a. d. 
1606. I will quote only one passage from this author. 
It is found in his sermon on the nativity of the Virgin, 
whom he thus addresses : " Nothing is impossible with 
thee, with whom it is possible to restore those in de- 
spair to the hope of blessedness. For how could that 
authority, which derived its flesh from thy flesh, oppose 
thy power ? For thou approach est before that golden 
altar of human reconciliation not only asking, but com- 
manding; a mistress, not a handmaid V 

I must now solicit your attention to the sentiments 
of two writers, whose partial identity of name has na- 
turally led, in some instances, to the one being mis- 
taken for the other, Bernardinus de Bustis, and Bernar- 
dinus Senensis. Bernardinus de Bustis 2 , in the coun- 
try of Milan, was the celebrated author of the " Office 
of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin," 
which was confirmed by the bull of Sixtus the Fourth, 
and has since been celebrated on the 8th of Decem- 
ber. 

He composed different works in honour of the Virgin, 

1 Accedis enim ante illud aureum humanae reconciliationis altare, 
non solum rogans, sed imperans ; Domina, non ancilla. Paris, 1743. 
vol. ii. p. 107. Serm. 44. 

2 Fabricius, vol. i. 215. 



CHAP. V.] BERNARDINUS DE BUSTIS. 375 

to one of which he gave the title " Mariale." In this 
work, with a great variety of sentiments of a similar 
tendency, he thus expresses himself: — 

" 1 Of so great authority in the heavenly palace is that 
empress, that, omitting all other intermediate saints, we 
may appeal to her from every grievance .... With 
confidence, then, let every one appeal to her, whether 
he be aggrieved by the devil, or by any tyrant, or by his 
own body, or by divine justice ;" and then, having speci- 
fied and illustrated the three other sources of grievance, 
he thus proceeds : " In the fourth place, he may appeal 
to her, if auy one feels himself aggrieved by the 
justice of God 2 . . . That empress, therefore, Hester, 
was a figure of this empress of the heavens, with whom 
God divided his kingdom. For, whereas God has jus- 
tice and mercy, He retained justice to himself to be ex- 
ercised in this world, and granted mercy to his mother ; 
and thus, if any one feels himself to be aggrieved in the 
court of God's justice, let him appeal to the court of 
mercy of his mother 3 ." 

For one moment, let us calmly weigh the import of 
these words : — Is it any thing short of robbing the Eter- 
nal Father of the brightest jewel in his crown, and 
sharing his glory with another ? Is it not encouraging 
us to turn our eyes from the God of mercy as a stern 
and ruthless judge, and habitually to fix them upon 
Mary as the dispenser of all we want for the comfort 
and happiness of our souls ? 

In another place, this same author thus exalts Mary: 

" Since the Virgin Mary is mother of God, and God 
is her Son ; and every son is naturally inferior to his 

1 Cologne, 1607. Part iii. Serm. ii. p. 176. 

2 Licet ad ipsarn appellare, si quis a Dei justitia se gravari sentit. 

3 Ideo si quis sentit se gravari in foro justitiae Dei, appellet ad 
forum misericordise matris ejus. 



376 WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. [PART III. 

mother, and subject to her; and the mother is pre- 
ferred above, and is superior to her son, it follows that 
the blessed Virgin is herself superior to God, and God 
himself is her subject, by reason of the humanity de- 
rived from her 1 ;" and again, " O the unspeakable dignity 
of Mary, who was worthy to command the Commander 
of all 2 ." 

I will detain you by only one more quotation from this 
famed Doctor. It appears to rob God of his justice and 
power, as well as of his mercy ; and to turn our eyes 
to Mary for the enjoyment of all we can desire, and for 
safety from all we can dread. Would that Bernardine 
stood alone in the propagation of such doctrines. " We 
may say, that the blessed Virgin is chancellor in the 
court of heaven. For we see, that in the chancery of 
our lord the pope, three kinds of letters are granted : 
some are of simple justice, others are of pure grace, 
and the third mixed, containing justice and grace . . The 
third chancellor is he to whom it appertains to give 
letters of pure grace and mercy. And this office hath 
the blessed Virgin; and therefore she is called the 
mother of grace and mercy : but those letters of mercy 
she gives only in the present life. For, to some 
souls, as they are departing, she gives letters of pure 
grace ; to others, of simple justice ; and to others, mixed, 
namely, of justice and grace. For some were very 
much devoted to her, and to them she gives letters of 
pure grace, by which she commands, that glory be given 
to them without any pain of purgatory : others were 
miserable sinners, and not devoted to her, and to them 
she gives letters of simple justice, by which she com- 
mands that condign vengeance be done upon them ; 
others were lukewarm and remiss in devotion, and to 
them she gives letters of justice and grace, by which 
1 Part ix. Serm. ii. p. 605. 2 Part xii. Serin, ii. p. 816. 



CHAP. V.] BERNARDINUS SENENSIS. 377 

she commands that grace be given to them, and yet, on 
account of their negligence and sloth, some pain of 
purgatory be also inflicted on them 1 ." 

The only remaining author, to whom I will at pre- 
sent refer you, is a canonized saint, Bernardinus Senen- 
sis. A full account of his life, his miracles, and his 
enrolment among the saints in heaven, is found in the 
Acta Sanctorum, vol. v. under the 20th of May, the 
day especially dedicated to his honour. Eugenius IV. 
died before the canonization of Bernardine could be 
completed : the next pope, Nicholas V. on Whitsun- 
day 1450, in full conclave, enrolled him among the 
saints, to the joy, we are told, of all Italy. In 1461, 
Pius the Second said that Bernardine was taken for 
a saint even in his lifetime ; and, in 1472, Sixtus IV. 
issued a bull, in which he extols the saint, and autho- 
rizes the translation of his body into a new church, 
dedicated, as others had been, to his honour. 

This Bernardine is equally explicit with others, in 
maintaining, that all the blessings which Christians 
can receive on earth are dispensed by Mary; that 
her princedom equals the princedom of the Eternal 
Father; that all are her servants and subjects, who 
are the subjects and servants of the Most High ; that 
all who adore the Son of God should adore his virgin- 
mother, and that the Virgin has repaid the Almighty 
for all that He has done for the human race. Some of 
these doctrines were to me quite startling ; I was not 
prepared for them ; but I have been assured they find 
an echo in the pulpits in many parts of the continent. 
Very few quotations will suffice 2 . 

1 Part xii. Serm. ii. On the twenty-second excellence, p. 825. 

2 Opera, per John de la Haye. Paris, 1636. Five volumes bound 
in two. 



378 WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. [PART III. 

" As many creatures do service to the glorious Mary, 
as do service to the Trinity . . . For he who is the Son 
of God, and of the blessed Virgin, wishing (so to speak) 
to make, in a manner, the princedom of his mother 
equal to the princedom of his father, he who was God, 
served his mother on earth. Moreover, this is true, all 
things, even the Virgin, are servants of the divine 
empire ; and again, this is true, all things, even God, 
are servants of the empire of the Virgin V 

" Therefore, all the angelic spirits are the ministers 
and servants of this glorious Virgin 2 ." 

" 3 To comprise all in a brief sentence, I do not doubt 
that God made all the liberations and pardons in the 
Old Testament on account of the reverence and love 
of this blessed maid, by which God preordained from 
eternity, that she should be, by predestination, honoured 
above all his works. On account of the immense love 
of the Virgin, as well Christ himself, as the whole most 
blessed Trinity, frequently grants pardon to the most 
wicked sinners." 

" 4 By the law of succession, and the right of inhe- 
ritance, the primacy and kingdom of the whole uni- 
verse is due to the blessed Virgin. Nay, when her 
only Son died on the cross, since He had no one on 
earth to succeed Him of right, his mother, by the laws 
of all, succeeded, and by this acquired the principality 
of all. . . . But 5 , of the monarchy of the universe, Christ 
never made any testamentary bequest, because that 
could never be done without prejudice to his mother. 
Moreover, he knew that a mother can annul the 



Vol. iv. Serra. v. c. vi. p. 118. 

Serm. iii. c. iii. p. 104. 3 Serm. v. c. ii. p. 116. 

Serra. v. c. vii. p. 118. b P. 116. 






CHAP. V.] BERNARDIXUS SENENSIS. 379 

WILL OF HER SON, IF IT BE MADE TO THE PREJUDICE 
OF HERSELF '." 

" The Virgin Mother 2 , from the time she conceived 
God, obtained a certain jurisdiction and authority in 
every temporal procession of the Holy Spirit, so that 
no creature could obtain any grace of virtue from God 
except according to the dispensation of his Virgin 
mother 3 . As through the neck the vital breathings 
descend from the head into the body, so the vital 
graces are transfused from the head Christ into his 
mystical body, through the Virgin. I fear not to say, 
that this Virgin has a certain jurisdiction over the flow- 
ing of all graces. And, because she is the mother of 
such a Son of God, who produces the Holy Spirit; 

THEREFORE, ALL THE GIFTS, VIRTUES, AND GRACES OF 
THE HOLY SPIRIT ARE ADMINISTERED BY THE HANDS OF 
HERSELF, TO WHOM SHE WILL, WHEN SHE WILL, HOW 
SHE WILL, AND IN WHAT QUANTITY SHE WILL 4 ." 

" She is the queen of mercy, the temple of God, the 
habitation of the Holy Spirit, always sitting at the 
right hand of Christ in eternal glory. Therefore she 
is to be venerated, to be saluted, and to be adored with 
the adoration of hyperdulia. And therefore she sits at 
the right hand of the King, that as often as you adore 
Christ the king you may adore also the mother of 
Christ 5 ." 

" The blessed 6 Virgin Mary alone has done more for 

1 Insuper noverat quod potest mater irritare Filii testamentum si 
in sui praejudicium sit confectura.-— P. 118. 

2 Serm. v. c. viii. and Serm. vi. c. ii. p. 120 and 122. There is 
an omission (probably by an error of the press) in the first passage, 
which the second enables us to supply. 

3 This writer is constantly referring to St. Bernard's doctrine, 
" No grace comes from heaven upon, the earth, but what passes 
through the hands of Mary." 

4 Serm. v. p. 119. 5 Serm. vi. p. 121. 6 Serm. vi. p. 120. 



380 WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. [PART III. 

God ; or as much (so to speak) as God hath done for 
the whole human race. For I verily believe that God 
will grant me indulgence if I now speak for the Virgin. 
Let us gather together into one what things God hath 
done for man, and let us consider what satisfaction the 
Virgin Mary hath rendered to the Lord." Bernardine 
here enumerates many particulars, placing one against 
the other, which for many reasons I cannot induce 
myself to transfer into these pages, and then he sums 
up the whole thus : " Therefore, setting each individual 
thing one against another, namely, what things God had 
done for man, and what things the blessed Virgin has 
done for God, you will see that Mary has done more for 
God, than God has for man ; so that thus, on account 
of the blessed Virgin, (whom, nevertheless, He himself 
made,) God is in a certain manner under greater obli- 
gations to us than we are to Him." 

The whole treatise he finishes with this address to 
the Virgin: — 

" Truly by mere babbling are we uttering these thy 
praises and excellences ; but we suppliantly pray thy 
immense sweetness. Do thou, by thy benignity, supply 
our insufficiencies, that we may worthily praise thee 
through the endless ages of ages. Amen." 

In closing these brief extracts I would observe, that 
by almost every writer in support of the worship of the 
Virgin, an appeal is made to St. Bernard l as their 
chief authority. Especially is the following passage 
quoted by many, either whole or in part, at almost 
every turn of their argument : — 

" If thou art disturbed by the heinousness of thy 
crimes, and confounded by the foulness of thy con- 

1 The present Pope, in the same manner, refers to him in his 
Encyclical Letter. — a.d. 1840. 



CHAP. V.] WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN. 381 

science, if terrified by the horror of judgment thou 
begin to be swallowed up in the gulf of despair, think 
of Mary, invoke Mary; let her not depart from thy 
heart, let her not depart from thy mouth. For whilst 
thinking of her, thou dost not err ; imploring her, thou 
dost not despair ; following her, thou dost not lose thy 
way ; whilst she holds thee, thou dost not fall ; whilst 
she protects thee, thou dost not fear ; whilst she is thy 
leader, thou art not wearied ; whilst she is favourable, 
thou reachest thy end l " 

If the Virgin Mary is thus regarded as the source 
and well-head of all safety and blessing, we cannot 
wonder, that glory and praise are ascribed in the self- 
same terms to her as to the Almighty. Cardinal Bel- 
larmin closes the several portions of his writings with 
" Praise to God and the blessed Virgin Mary 2 ." It 
is painful to reflect, that either the highest glory, due 
to that God who will not share his glory with another, 
is here ascribed to one of the creatures of his hand 
(however highly favoured and full of grace), or else that 
to the most high God is ascribed an inferior glory and 
praise, such as it is lawful for us to address to an 
exalted fellow-creature. Surely the only ascription 
fitting the lips and the heart of those who have been 
enlightened by the bright beams of Gospel truth, is 

Glory to God alone through Christ his Son. 

1 See Bern. Sen. vol. iv. p. 124. The passage is found in Bernard, 
Paris, 1640. p. 25. 

2 Such ascriptions are very common. Joannes de Carthagena, a 
most voluminous writer of homilies, adopts this as the close of his 
sections : " Praise and glory to the Triune God, to the Humanity of 
Christ, to the Blessed Virgin Mary his mother, and to St. Joseph 
her dearest spouse." — Catholic Homilies on the Sacred Secrets of 
the Mother of God, and Joseph, p. 921. Paris, 1615. 



382 WORKS OF DEVOTION [PART III. 

SECTION V. 
MODERN WORKS OF DEVOTION AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

It may perhaps be surmised, that the authors re- 
ferred to in the last section lived many years ago, and 
that the sentiments of the faithful members of the 
Church of Rome have undergone material changes on 
these points. Assurances are given on every side, that 
the invocation of the saints and of the Virgin is nothing 
more than a request, that they would intercede with 
God, and implore his mercy for the suppliants. But 
whatever implicit reliance we may place on the good 
faith with which these declarations are made, we can 
discover no new key by which to interpret the forms 
of prayer and praise satisfactorily. Confessedly there 
are no changes in the authorized services. We discover 
no traces of change in the worship of private devotion. 
The Breviary and Missal contain the same offices of 
the Virgin Mary as in former days. The same senti- 
ments are expressed towards her in public ; the same 
forms of devotion *, both in prayer and praise, are pre- 
pared for the use of individuals in their daily exercises. 
Whatever meaning is to be attached to the expressions 
employed, the prevailing expressions themselves re- 
main the same as we found them to have been in past 
ages. 

Since I made these extracts from the learned and 
celebrated doctors and canonized saints of former ages, 
my attention has been invited to the language now 

1 Works of this character abound in every place, where Roniiin 
Catholic books may be purchased. 



CHAP. V.] AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 383 

used in forms of devotion, the spirit of which implies 
similar views of the power and love of the Virgin 
Mary, as the fountain of mercies to mankind, and the 
dispenser of every heavenly blessing. 

At the head of these modern works, I was led to 
read over again the encyclical letter of the present 
sovereign pontiff, from the closing sentences of which 
I have already made extracts. And referring his words 
to a test which we have more than once applied in a 
similar case — that of changing the name of the person, 
and substituting the name of God, or his blessed Son, 
I cannot see how the spirit of his sentiments falls in 
the least below the highest degree of religious worship. 
His words, in the third paragraph of his letter, as 
they appear in the Laity's Directory for 1833, are 
these : — 

" But having at length taken possession of our see 
in the Lateran Basilic according to the custom and 
institution of our predecessors, we turn to you without 
delay, venerable brethren, and in testimony of our 
feelings towards you, we select for the date of our 
letter this most joyful day on which we celebrate the 
solemn festival of the most blessed Virgin's triumphant 
assumption into heaven, that she who has been through 
every great calamity our patroness and protectress, 
may watch over us writing to you, and lead our 

MIND BY HER HEAVENLY INFLUENCE to those Counsels 

which may prove most salutary to Christ's flock." 

Let us substitute for the name of Mary, the holiest 
of all, The Eternal Spirit of Jehovah Himself; and will 
not these words be a proper vehicle of the sentiments 
of a Christian pastor ? Let us fix upon Christmas-day, 
or Easter, or Holy Thursday, and what word expressive 



384 WORKS OF DEVOTION [PART III. 

of gratitude for past mercies to the supreme Giver of 
all good things, or of hope and trust in the guidance of 
the Spirit of counsel, and wisdom, and strength — of the 
most High God, who alone can order the wills and 
ways of men — might not a bishop of Christ's flock take 
from this declaration of the Sovereign Pontiff, and use 
in its first and natural sense, when speaking of the 
Lord Jehovah Himself? " We select for the date of 
our letter this most joyful day on which we celebrate 
the solemn festival of the most blessed Redeemer's 
nativity, (or glorious resurrection, or ascension,) that He 
who has been through every great calamity our patron 
and protector, may watch over us writing to you, and 
lead our mind by his heavenly influence to those 
counsels which may prove most salutary to Christ's 
flock." 

In these sentiments of the present Pope there is no 
allusion (as there is in the other clause) to Mary's 
prayers and intercessions. Looking to and weighing 
the words employed, and as far as words can be relied 
upon as interpreters of the thoughts, looking to the 
spirit of his profession, only one inference can be fairly 
drawn. However direct and immediate the prayers of 
the suppliants may be to the Virgin for her protection 
and defence from all dangers, spiritual and bodily, and 
for the guidance of the inmost thoughts in the right 
way, (blessings which we of the Anglican Catholic 
Church, following the footsteps of the primitive flock 
of Christ, have always looked for at the hand of God 
Almighty only, to be granted by Him for the sake of 
his blessed Son,) such petitioners to Mary would be 
sanctioned to the utmost by the principles and ex- 
ample of the present Roman Pontiff. 

We have already, when examining the records of 



CHAP. V.] AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 385 

the Council of Chalcedon, compared the closing words 
of this encyclical letter with the more holy and primi- 
tive aspirations of the Bishops of Rome and Constanti- 
nople in those earlier days ; and the comparison is 
striking between the sentiments now expressed in the 
opening parts of the same letter, and the spirit of the 
collects which were adopted for the use of the faithful, 
before the invocation of saints and of the Virgin had 
gained its present strong hold in the Church of Rome. 
For example, a collect at Vespers teaches us to pray 
to God as the source from whom all holy desires and 
all good counsels proceed 1 ; and on the fifth Sunday 
after Easter this prayer is offered : " O God, from whom 
all good things do come, grant, we pray Thee, that by 
thy inspiration we may think those things that be good ; 
and by thy guidance may perform the same ;" whilst on 
the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, in a collect, the 
spirit of which is strongly contrasted with the senti- 
ments in both parts of this encyclical letter, God is thus 
addressed : " We beseech thee, O Lord, with thy con- 
tinual pity, guard thy family, that, leaning on the sole 
hope of heavenly grace, it may ever be defended by 
thy protection 2 ." 

Similar materials are abundant. A whole volume, 
indeed, might readily be composed consisting solely of 
rules and instructions, confessions and forms of prayer, 
appertaining to the Virgin and the Saints, published 
by authority at the present day, both in our country 
and on the Continent, for the use of our Roman Ca- 

1 Hiem. 149. 

2 Ut quae in sola spe gratiae ccelestis innititur, tua semper protec- 
tione muniatur. — Hiem. 364. 

" Let us raise our eyes to the Blessed Virgin, who is our greatest 
hope, yea, the entire ground of our hope." 

C C 



386 WORKS OF DEVOTION [PART III. 

tholic brethren; but to which the word of God, and 
the doctrine and practice of the primitive Church, are 
in our estimation as much opposed as to the prayers of 
Bonaventura, or to the doctrine of either of the Ber- 
nardins. It would, however, be unprofitable to dwell 
on this subject at any great length. I will, therefore, only 
briefly refer to two publications of this sort, to which 
my own attention has been accidentally drawn : " * The 
Imitation of the Blessed Virgin," and " 2 The Little 
Testament of the Holy Virgin." 

The first professes to be " composed on the plan 
of the ' Imitation of Christ.' " This is, in itself, highly 
objectionable ; its tendency is to exalt Mary, by 
association, to the same place in our hearts and minds, 
which Thomas a Kempis had laboured, in his ' Imita- 
tion of Christ,' to secure for the Saviour; and it re- 
minds us of the proceedings of Bonaventura, who wrote 
psalms to the honour of the Virgin after the manner 
which David used in his hymns to the Lord of Glory. 
In this work we read the following prayer to the Virgin, 
which seems to be stained with the error, the existence 
of which elsewhere we have already noticed, of con- 
trasting the justice and the stern dealings even of the 
Saviour, with the mercy, and loving-kindness, and fellow- 
feeling of Mary ; making God an object of fear, Mary 
an object of love. 

3 " Mother of my Redeemer, O Mary, in the last mo- 

1 " The Imitation of the Blessed Virgin, composed on the plan of 
the Imitation of Christ. London, 1816. Approved, by T. R. Asselini, 
Doctor of Sorbonne, last Bishop of Boulogne. From the French." 

2 "The Little Testament of the Holy Virgin, translated from the 
French, and revised by a Catholic Priest. Third Edition. Dublin, 
1836." 

3 Chap. xiii. p. 344. 



CHAP. V.] AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 387 

ments of my life, I implore thy assistance with more 
earnestness than ever. I find myself, as it were, placed 
between heaven and hell. Alas ! what will become of 
me, if thou do not exert, in my behalf, thy powerful 
influence with Jesus? .... I die with submission 
since Jesus has ordained it; but notwithstanding the 
natural horror which I have of death, I die with plea- 
sure, because I die under thy protection." 

In the fourteenth chapter the following passage oc- 
curs ! : "It is giving to the blessed Virgin a testimony 
of love particularly dear and precious to her, to make 
her holy spouse Joseph the first object of our devotion, 
next to that which consecrates us to her service. . . . 
The name of Joseph is invoked with singular devotion 
by all the true faithful. They frequently join it with 
the sacred names of Jesus and Mary. Whilst Jesus and 
Mary lived at Nazareth, if we had wished to obtain some 
favour from them, could we have employed a more 
powerful protector than St. Joseph ? Will he now have 
less power and credit? Go therefore to Joseph, 
(Gen. xli. 55.) that he may intercede for you. What- 
ever favour you ask, God will grant it you at his re- 
quest . . . Go to Joseph in all your necessities ; but 
especially to obtain the grace of a happy death. The 
general opinion that he died in the arms of Jesus and 
Mary has inspired the faithful with great confidence, 
that, through his intercession, they will have an end as 
happy and consoling as his. In effect, it has been re- 
marked, that it is particularly at the hour of death that 
those who have been during their life careful to honour 
this great saint, reap the fruit of their devotion." 

In this passage the unworthy idea, itself formed on 
a groundless tradition, is introduced of paying reve- 

1 P. 347. 

cc 2 



388 WORKS OF DEVOTION [PART III. 

rence to one saint, in order to gratify and conciliate 
another. Joseph must be especially honoured in order 
to do what is most acceptable to Mary. Surely this 
tends to withdraw the mind from that habitual refer- 
ence of all our actions immediately to God, which the 
primitive teachers were so anxious to cultivate in all 
Christians. 

In the ' Little Testament of the Holy Virgin,' the fol- 
lowing (p. 46) is called, " A Prayer to the blessed 
Virgin." Can any words place more on an entire level 
with each other, the eternal Son of God and the Virgin ? 
"Jesus and Mary?!" 

" O Mary ! what would be our poverty and misery if 
the Father of Mercies had not drawn you from his 
treasury to give you to earth! Oh! my Life and Con- 
solation, I trust and confide in your holy name. My 
heart wishes to love you ; my mouth to praise you ; my 
mind to contemplate you ; my soul sighs to be yours. 
Receive me, defend me, preserve me ; I cannot perish 
in your hands. Let the demons tremble when I pro- 
nounce your holy name, since you have ruined their 
empire ; but we shall say with Saint Anselm, that he 
does not know God, who has not an idea sufficiently 
high of your greatness and glory. We shall esteem it 
the greatest honour to be of the number of your ser- 
vants. Let your glory, blessed Mother, be equal to 
the extent of your name ; reign, after God, over all that 
is beneath God ; but, above all, reign in my heart ; 
you will be my consolation in suffering, my strength in 
weakness, my counsel in doubt. At the name of Mary 
my hope shall be enlightened, my love inflamed. Oh ! 
that I could deeply engrave the dear name on every 
heart, suggest it to every tongue, and make all celebrate 
it with me. Mary ! sacred name, under which no one 



CHAP. V.] AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 389 

should despair. Mary ! sacred name, often assaulted, 
but always victorious. Mary ! it shall be my life, my 
strength, my comfort ! Every day shall I envoke it 
and the divine name of Jesus. The Son will awake 
the recollection of the mother, and the mother that of 
the Son. Jesus and Mary ! this is what my heart 
shall say at the last hour, if my tongue cannot ; I shall 
hear them on my death bed, — they shall be wafted on 
my expiring breath, and I with them, to see them, know T 
them, bless and love them for eternity. Amen." 

There may, perhaps, be a reasonable ground for our 
hoping that these are not the sentiments entertained by 
the enlightened Roman Catholics of our country and 
age. Any one has a full right to say, " These are pro- 
ductions of individuals for which we and the Church to 
which we belong are not responsible, any more than 
the Church of England is responsible for all doctrines 
and sentiments expressed by writers in her commu- 
nion ! Even the sentiments above referred to of the 
present reigning pope, you have no right to allege 
as the doctrines of the Church!" But I would again 
venture to suggest to every one, who would thus speak, 
the duty of ascertaining for himself, whether the sen- 
timents of those w T ho at present fill the highest places, 
and which fully justify these devotional exercises and 
prayers to the Virgin and the Saints, be not them- 
selves fully justified by the authorized ritual of the 
Roman Church. On this point are supplied, even in 
this volume, materials sufficiently diversified and abun- 
dant in quantity to enable any one to form a correct 
judgment. 

By two brief extracts I will now bring this branch 
of our inquiry to a close. The first is from the con- 
cluding paragraphs of a discourse lately delivered and 



390 WORKS OF DEVOTION [PART III. 

published. In principle, the sentiments here professed 
apparently admit not only of being identified with 
those of the authorized services of the Church of Rome, 
but also, though not so naked and revolting in appear- 
ance as the doctrines of Bonaventura, Biel, and the two 
Bernardins, yet in reality they equally depart from the 
simplicity of the Gospel, and are equally at direct 
variance with that, its first and its last principle, one 
God and one Mediator between God and men, the 
man Christ Jesus. 

"Remember that this day you have put yourselves 
and your families under the protection of the ever-blessed 
Mother of God, and Her chaste Spouse, St. Joseph ; of 
those who were chosen of God to protect the infancy 
of Jesus from the danger by a persecuting world. En- 
treat THEM TO PROTECT YOU AND YOURS FROM THE 

perils of a seducing and ensnaring world ; to plead 
your interests in heaven, and secure by their intercession 
your everlasting crown. Loudly proclaim the praises 
of your heavenly Queen, but at the same time turn 
Her power to your everlasting advantage by your earnest 
supplications to her V 

The other extract, which sanctions to the full what- 
ever offerings of praise and ascriptions of glory we have 
found individuals making to the Virgin and to Saints, 
is from an announcement in, I believe, the last English 
edition of the Roman Breviary published, in its present 
form, under the sanction of the Pope himself. 

" To those who devoutly recite the following prayer 
after the office, Pope Leo the Tenth hath granted 
pardon (indulsit) for the defects and faults in celebrat- 
ing it, contracted by human frailty. 

" To the most holy and undivided Trinity; to the man- 

1 See Appendix. 



CHAP. V.] AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 391 

hood of our crucified Lord Jesus Christ ; to the fruitful 
spotlessness of the most blessed and most glorious and 
ever-Virgin Mary ; and to the entire body of all the 
Saints, be eternal praise, honour, virtue, and glory, 
from every creature, and to us remission of all sins, 
through endless ages of ages. Amen 1 ." 

On the indulgence for pardon given by Pope Leo 
the Tenth, more than 300 years ago, for such defects 
and faults in celebrating a religious service as may be 
contracted by human frailty ; and on the fact of the 
notification of that indulgence being retained, and set 
forth so prominently in the service books at the present 
day, I will say nothing. Whatever associations may be 
raised in our minds by these circumstances, the subject 
does not fall within our present field of inquiry. But 
to join the Holy Trinity with the Virgin Mother, and 
all the Saints in one and the same ascription of eternal 
praise, honour, and glory, is as utterly subversive 
of the integrity of primitive Christian Worship, as it is 
repugnant to the plainest sense of holy Scripture, and 
derogatory to the dignity of that Supreme Being, who 
declares Himself to be a jealous God. 

It has, indeed, been maintained that such ascriptions 
of glory and praise jointly to God and his Saints, is sanc- 
tioned by the language of our blessed Saviour Himself 
when He speaks of his having given his glory to his dis- 
ciples 2 , and of his second advent, when He shall come in 
his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels 3 . 
But between the two cases there is no analogy what- 
ever ; the inference is utterly fallacious. We know that 
the Lord of Hosts is the King of glory, and that his eter- 
nal Son shared the glory of his Father before the founda- 

1 Norwich, 1830. .Est. 2 John xvii. 22. 

3 Luke ix. 26. 



392 WORKS OF DEVOTION [PART III. 

tions of the world were laid. We know, too, that the 
Almighty has been pleased to create beings of various 
degrees and orders, differing from each other in kind or 
in excellence according to his supreme will. Among 
those creatures of his hand are the angels whom we 
reverence and love, as his faithful servants and his 
ministers to us for good. But when we speak and 
think of religious adoration; of giving thanks; and 
ascribing eternal glory and honour, we have only one 
object in our minds, — the supreme Sovereign Lord of 
all. 

With regard to the gracious words of our Saviour in 
his prayer to the Father, on the eve of his death, St. 
Peters acts and words supply us with a plain and con- 
clusive comment. He was himself one of those to 
whom Christ had declared that He had given the glory 
which his Father had given to Him ; and yet when 
Cornelius fell down at his feet to worship him, he took 
him up, saying, " Stand up ; I myself also am a man 1 ." 
The Saviour was pleased to impart his glory to his 
Apostles, dividing to them his heavenly gifts severally 
as He willed. We praise Him for those graces which 
shone so brightly in them, and we pray to Him to en- 
able us by his grace to follow them, as they followed his 
blessed steps. We reverence their memory, but we 
give God alone the praise. 

As to the other instance, the words of our Lord (assur- 
ing us that the angels should accompany Him at his se- 
cond advent in their glory, the glory which He assigned 
to them in the order of creation,) no more authorize us 
to ascribe praise and glory by a religious act to them, 
when we praise the God of angels and men, than would 

1 Acts x. 26. 



CHAP. V.] AMONG ROMAN CATHOLICS. 393 

the assurance of an inspired apostle, that " there is one 
glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another 
glory of the stars," sanction us in joining those lumina- 
ries in the same ascription of glory with their Almighty 
Creator and ours. Just as reasonably would a pagan 
justify his worship of the sun, the moon, and the stars, 
by this passage of Scripture, as our Roman Catholic 
brethren would justify themselves by the former pas- 
sage in their ascription of praise and glory to the holy 
angels, and saints, and the blessed Virgin. We honour 
the holy angels, we praise God for the glory which He 
has imparted to them, and for the share which He has 
been pleased to assign to them in executing his decrees 
of mercy in the heavenly work of our salvation ; and 
we pray to Him to grant that they may by his appoint- 
ment succour and defend us on earth, through Jesus 
Christ our Lord. But we address no invocation to 
them ; we ascribe no glory to them as an act of reli- 
gious worship. By offering thanks and praise to God 
He declares that we honour Him ; by offering thanks 
and praise, and by ascribing glory and honour to angel, 
saint, or virgin, we make them gods. 






CONCLUSION. 



We have now, my fellow Christians, arrived at the 
conclusion of the task which I proposed to undertake. 
I have laid before you, to the utmost of my abilities 
and means, the result of my inquiry into the evidence 
of holy Scripture and primitive antiquity, on the invo- 
cation of saints and angels, and the blessed Virgin 
Mary. In this inquiry, excepting so far as was neces- 
sary to elucidate the origin and history of the Roman 
Catholic tenet of the Assumption of the Virgin, we have 
limited our researches to the writers who lived before 
the Nicene Council. That Council has always been 
considered a cardinal point, — a sort of climacteric in 
the history of the early Church. It was the first 
Council to which all the bishops of Christendom were 
summoned; and the influence of its decrees is felt 
beneficially in the Catholic Church to this very day. 
In fixing upon this Council as our present boundary 
line, I was influenced by a conviction, that the large 
body of Christians, whether of the Roman, the Angli- 
can, or any other branch of the Church Catholic, would 
consent to this as an indisputable axiom, — that what 
the Church Catholic did not believe or practise up to 



CONCLUSION. 395 

that date of her existence upon earth, cannot be re- 
garded as either Catholic or primitive, or apostolical. 
Ending with St. Athanasius, (who, though he was 
present at that Council, yet brings his testimony down 
through almost another half century, his death not 
having taken place till a.d. 373, on the verge of his 
eightieth year,) we have examined the remains of Chris- 
tian antiquity, reckoning forward to that Council from 
the times of the Apostles. We have searched dili- 
gently into the writings, the sentiments, and the con- 
duct of those first disciples of our Lord. We have 
contemplated the words of our blessed Saviour himself, 
and the inspired narrative of his life and teaching. 
With the same object in view we have studied the 
prophets of the Old Testament, and the works of 
Moses ; and we have endeavoured, at the fountain- 
head, to ascertain what is the mind and will of God, 
as revealed to the world from the clay when He 
made man, on the question of our invoking the angels 
and saints to intercede with Him in our behalf, or 
to assist and succour us on the earth. And the re- 
sult is this: — From first to last, the voice of God 
Himself, and the voices of the inspired messengers of 
heaven, whether under the patriarchal, the Mosaic, or 
the Christian dispensations, the voices too of those 
maintainers of our common faith in Christ, who prayed, 
and taught, in the Church, before the corruptions of 
a degenerate world had mingled themselves with the 
purity of Christian worship, combine all, in publishing, 
throughout the earth, one and the self-same principle, 
" Pray only to God ; draw nigh to Him alone ; invoke 
no other ; seek no other in the world of spirits, neither 
angel, nor beatified saint ; seek Him, and He will favour- 
ably, with mercy, hear your prayers." To this one 



396 CONCLUSION. 

principle, when the Gospel announced the whole coun- 
sel of God in the salvation of man, our Lord himself, 
his Apostles, and his Church, unite in adding another 
principle of eternal obligation, — There is one Mediator 
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus ; whatso- 
ever the faithful shall ask the Father in the name of 
that Mediator, He will grant it to them : He is ever 
living to make intercession for those who believe in 
Him : Invoke we no other intercessor, apply we neither 
to saint nor angel, plead we the merits of no other. 
Let us lift up our hearts to God Almighty himself, and 
make our requests known to Him in the name, and 
through the mediation of Christ, and He will fulfil our 
desires and petitions as may be most expedient for us ; 
He will grant to us, in this world, a knowledge of his 
truth, and in the world to come life everlasting ! 

Watching the tide of evidence through its whole 
progress, we find it to flow all in this one direction. 
Here and there indeed attempts have been made to 
raise some mounds and barriers of human structure, in 
order to arrest its progress, and turn it from its straight 
course, but in vain; unchecked by any such endea- 
vours, it rolls on in one full, steady, strong, and resist- 
less current. Until we have long passed the Nicene 
Council, we find no one writer of the Christian Church, 
whose remains tell us, that he either himself invoked 
saints and angels, and the Virgin Mary, or was at 
all aware of any such practice prevailing in Christendom. 
Suppose, for one moment, that our doctrine is right ; 
and then we find the whole tenour of the Old and New 
Testaments, and the ancient writers, in their plain mean- 
ing, agreeably to the interpretation of the most learned 
and unbiassed critics, fully coinciding in every respect 
with our view of God being the sole object of invoca- 



CONCLUSION. 397 

tion, and of the exclusive character of Christ's inter- 
cession, mediation, and advocacy. Suppose, for another 
moment, the Roman Catholic theory to be correct, 
then the whole general tenour and drift of Scripture 
must be evaded ; the clearest statements and announce- 
ments must be explained away by subtle distinctions, 
gratuitous definitions, and casuistical refinements, alto- 
gether foreign from the broad and simple truths of 
Revelation; then, too, in ascertaining the sentiments 
of an author, not his general and pervading principles, 
evidenced throughout his writings, must be appealed 
to ; but casual and insulated expressions must be con- 
tracted or expanded as may best seem to counteract 
the impression made by the testimony of those prin- 
ciples. We may safely ask, Is there such evidence, that 
the primitive Church offered invocations to saints and 
angels, and the Virgin, as would satisfy us in the case 
of any secular dispute with regard to ancient usage ? On 
the contrary, is not the evidence clear to a moral 
demonstration, that the offering of such addresses is an 
innovation of later days, unknown to the primitive 
Christians till after the middle of the fourth century, 
and never pronounced to be an article of faith, until 
the Council of Trent, more than a thousand years after 
its first appearance in Christendom, so decreed it. 

The tendency, indeed, of some Roman Catholic writ- 
ings, especially of late years, is to draw off our minds 
on these points from the written word of God, and the 
testimony of the earliest Church, and to dwell upon 
the possibility, the reasonableness of the doctrines of the 
Church of Rome in this respect, their accordance with 
our natural feelings, and their charitableness. But in 
points of such vast moment, in things concerning the 
soul's salvation, we can depend with satisfaction and 



398 CONCLUSION. 

without misgiving, only on the sure word of promise ; 
nothing short of God's own pledge of his own eternal 
truth can assure us, that all is safe. Such substitution 
of what may appear to us reasonable, and agreeable to 
our natural sentiments, and desirable if true, in place 
of the assurances of God's revealed Will, may corre- 
spond with the arguments of a heathen philosopher 
unacquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus, but can- 
not satisfy disciples of Him who brought life and im- 
mortality to light by his Gospel. Such questions as 
these, " Is there any thing unreasonable in this ? Would 
not this be a welcome tenet, if true ?" well became the 
lips of Socrates in his defence before his judges, but are 
in the strict sense of the word preposterous in a Chris- 
tian. With the Christian the first question is, What 
is the truth ? What is revealed ? What has God pro- 
mised ? What has He taught man to hope for ? What 
has He commanded man to do ? By his own words, 
by the words and by the example of his inspired mes- 
sengers, by the doctrine and practice of his Church, 
the witness and interpreter of the truth, how has He 
directed us to sue for his mercy and all its blessings ? 
On what foundation, sure and certain, can we build 
our hopes that " He will favourably with mercy hear 
our prayers?" For in this matter, a matter of spiritual 
life and death, we can anchor our hope on no other 
rock than his sure word of promise. 

That sure word of promise, if I am a faithful believer, 
I have ; but it is exclusive of any invocation by me of 
saint, or angel, or virgin. The pledge of heaven is 
most solemnly and repeatedly given ; God, who cannot 
lie, has, in language so plain, that he may run who 
readeth it, assured me that if I come to Himself by 
his Son, my prayer shall not be cast out, my suit shall 




CONCLUSION. 399 



not be denied, I shall not be sent empty away. In 
every variety of form which language can assume, this 
assurance is ratified and confirmed. His own revealed 
will directs me to pray for my fellow-creatures, and to 
expect a beneficial effect from the prayers of the faith- 
ful upon earth in my behalf. To pray for them, there- 
fore, and to seek their prayers, and to wait patiently 
for n answer to both, are acts of faith and of duty. 
And were it also appointed by God's will to be an act 
of faith and duty in a Christian to seek the prayers, and 
aid, and assistance, of saints and angels by supplicat- 
ingly invoking them, surely the same word of truth would 
have revealed that also. Whereas the reverse shows 
itself under every diversified state of things, from the 
opening of the sacred book to its very last page. The 
subtle distinction of religious worship into latria, dulia, 
and hyperdulia, the refined classification of prayer under 
the two heads of direct, absolute, final, sovereign, on 
the one hand, and of oblique, relative, transitory, 
subaltern, on the other, swell indeed many elaborate 
works of casuistry, but are not discoverable in the 
remains of primitive Christians, nor in the writings of 
God's word have they any place. I cannot find 
in the inspired Apostles any reference to the neces- 
sity, the duty, the lawfulness, the expediency of our 
seeking by prayer the good offices of the holy dead, 
or of the angels of light. In their successors the 
earliest inspired teachers and pastors of Christ's fold, I 
seek in vain for any precept, or example, or suggestion, 
or incidental allusion looking that way. Why then 
should a Christian wish to add to that which God has 
been pleased to appoint and to reveal ? Why should 
I attempt to enter heaven through any other gate than 



400 CONCLUSION. 

that gate which the Lord of heaven has opened for me ? 
or why should I seek to reach that gate by any other 
way than the way which He has made for me ; which 
He has Himself plainly prescribed to me ; in which He 
has promised that his word shall be a lantern unto 
my feet ; and along which those saints and servants of 
his, who received the truth from his own lips, and 
sealed it by their blood, have gone before ? 

Whenever a maintainer of the doctrine and practice 
of invoking the Saints asks me, as we have lately been 
asked in these words, " May I not reasonably hope 
that their prayers will be more efficacious than my own 
and those of my friends ? And, under this persuasion, 
I say to them, as I just now said to you, holy Mary, 
holy Peter, holy Paul, pray for me. What is there in 
reason or revelation to forbid me to do so?" To this 
and similar questions and suggestions, I answer at once, 
God has solemnly covenanted to grant the petitions of 
those who ask Him for his mercy, in the name and for 
the sake of his Son ; and in his holy word has, both by 
precept and example, taught us in this life to pray for 
each other, and to ask each other's prayers l ; but that 
He will favourably answer the prayers which we sup- 
plicate angels to offer, or which we offer to Himself 
through the merits and by the intercession of departed 
mortals, is no where in the covenant. Moreover, when 
God invites me and commands me to approach Him 
myself, in the name of his Son, and trusting to his 
merits, it is not Christian humility, rather it savours 
of presumption, and intruding into those things which 
we have not seen 2 , to seek to prevail with Him by 

1 James v. 16 ; 1 Tim. ii. 1. 2 Coloss. ii. 18. 



CONCLUSION. 401 

pleading other merits, and petitioning creatures, how- 
ever glorious, to interest themselves with Him in our 
behalf, angels and saints, of whose power even to hear 
us we have no evidence. When Jesus Himself, who 
knows both the deep counsels of the Eternal Spirit, 
and man's wants and weaknesses and unworthiness, 
and who loveth his own to the end, pledges his never- 
failing word, that whatsoever we ask the Father in his 
name, He will give it us, can it be less than an unworthy 
distrust of his truth and faithfulness to ask the Father 
for the merits and by the intercession of another? and 
as though in fear lest God should fail of his promise, 
or be unmindful of us Himself, to invoke angels and the 
good departed to make our wants known unto Him, and 
prevail with Him to relieve us ? 

Surely it were wiser and safer to adhere religiously 
to that one way which cannot fail, than to adopt for 
ourselves methods and systems, for the success of which 
we have no guarantee ; which may be unacceptable in 
his sight ; and the tendency of which may be to bring 
down a curse and not a blessing. 

May the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls pour 
down upon his Church the abundance of his mercy, 
preserving those in the truth who now possess it, re- 
storing it to those by whom it has been lost, and im- 
parting it to all who are yet in darkness. And, whilst 
we speak the truth in love, and endeavour to keep the 
unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, may He, for his 
own glory, and for the safety and comfort of his people, 
shed this truth abroad in our hearts, and enlighten us 
to receive it in all its fulness and integrity, and in the 
very sense in which the Holy Spirit, when He guided 

Dd 



402 CONCLUSION. 

the pen of St. Paul, willed the Church to interpret it, 
"There is one God and one Mediator between God 
and men, the man Christ Jesus." 



O everlasting God, who hast ordained and con- 
stituted the services of Angels and men in a wonder- 
ful order ; Mercifully grant, that as thy holy Angels 
alway do Thee service in heaven, so by thy appoint- 
ment they may succour and defend us on earth, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

O Almighty God, who hast built thy Church upon 
the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself being the head corner-stone ; Grant us so 
to be joined together in unity of spirit by their doctrine, 
that we may be made an holy temple, acceptable unto 
Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

O Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect 
in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body 
of thy Son Christ our Lord ; Grant us grace, so to fol- 
low thy blessed Saints in all virtuous and godly living, 
that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which 
Thou hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love 
Thee ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 



APPENDIX. 



Note. — Pages 107 and 110. 

The following is the original of the passages discussed in the text. 
Justin Martyr, Apol. I. p. 47. § vi. Benedictine Edition by 
P. Maran. Paris, a. d. 1742. 

'E»'0eV^£ Kal adsoi KEKXi'ijieda' Kal ofjioXoyovjiEv tCjv tolovtcov 
vo^l^o/ueviov Oewv adeoi eivcti, dW ov%l tov a.\r)de<7Tarov, Kal 7ra-p6g 
(iLKaioavvriQ Kal crueppocrvvrjg, Kal tu)v aXXcov aperiov, dvETn^xLKTOv te 
KaKiag Qeov' d\\' eke'ivov te, Kal tov irap avrov v'ibv IXOovra koI 
Sida.L,avTa tj/jag ravra, Kal tov tu>v aXXiov ewo/uevwv Kal ilofjLOLOVfXErojv 
ayadiov dyyiXwv arpardv, 7rvEVfjd te to Trpotyrj-iKov o-f/Jo^ffta, Kal 
TrpotTKvvovfXEv, Xoya) Kal aXrjdEia Ti/jtoJvTEg, Kal rravTl (SovXofXEva) fxa- 
6e1v, (he E^iSa^dqfJLEv, a(J>Q6r(i)Q 7rapadicovTEg. 

Ibid, page 50, 51. sect. xiii. — " ABeol /xev olv wg ovk ev/jev, tov 

hr]fXLOvpybv tovce tov iravTog crEJ^o/JLEvoi, tov SiddvKaXov 

te tovto)v yEvofiEvov ///***', Kal Eig tovto yEvrjdivTa 'Irjaovv XpiffTOv tov 
aTavpiodirTa kirl Hovtiov ILiXaTOv, tov yEvofxivov ev 'lovcaia ettI \po- 
voig Ti^eo'iov Kalaapog ETnTpotrov, vlov uvtov tov ovTQjg Qeov LxaBovTEg, 

Kal EV SeVTEpCf. X^l° a £X 0VTeC > KVEVfld TE 7TpO(jjT]TlK6v EV TpiTT) Ta^El, OTL 
fJLETCt Xoyov TILXWLXEV, dnolEi^OfXEV 

Note. — Page 134. 

In the text it has been observed, that " Coccius in his elaborate 
work quotes the two following passages as Origen's, without expres- 

Dd2 



404 APPENDIX. 

ing any hesitation or doubt respecting their genuineness ; in which 
he is followed by writers of the present day." 

The modern works, to which reference is here made, are chiefly the 
Lectures delivered by Dr. Wiseman, in the Roman Catholic Chapel 
in Moorfields in the year 1836, and the compilation 1 of Messrs. 
Berington and Kirk, from which Dr. Wiseman in his preface to his 
Lectures (p. ix.) informs us, that in general he had drawn his quo- 
tations of the Fathers. In citing the testimony of Origen in support 
of the invocation of saints, it is evident that Dr. Wiseman has drawn 
from that source ; for whereas the two confessedly spurious passages, 
from the Lament, and from the Book on Job, are in that compilation 
quoted in the same page, Dr. Wiseman cites only the passage from 
the Lament, as from a work on the Lamentations, but gives his re- 
ference to the Book on Job. His words are these : — " Again he 
(Origen) thus writes on the Lamentations : ' I will fall down on 
my knees, and not presuming, on account of my crimes, to present 
my prayer to God, I will invoke all the saints to my assistance. 
O ye saints of heaven, I beseech you with a sorrow full of sighs and 
tears ; fall at the feet of the Lord of mercies for me, a miserable 
sinner.' — Lib. ii. De Job V 

When we find such passages as these, which have been so long ago 
and so repeatedly pronounced to be utterly spurious, yet cited in 
evidence at the present time, and represented as conveying the 
genuine testimony of Origen, we shall be pardoned for repeating the 
sentiments expressed so many years ago by the learned Bishop of 
Avranches with regard to the very work here cited, "It is wonder- 
ful that, WITHOUT ANY MARK OF THEIR BEING FORGERIES, they should 

be sometimes cited in evidence by some theologians." 
Note. — Page 151. 

The whole passage cited as Origen's comment on the words of 
Biekiel, " The heavens are opened," is in the Latin version as fol- 
lows. The Greek original, if it ever existed, is lost. The portion 
between brackets is the part suspected of being an interpolation. 

6. Et aperti sunt coeli. Clausi erant coeli, et ad adventum Christi 
aperti sunt, ut reseratis illis veniret super eum Spiritus Sanctus in 
specie columbae. Neque enim poterat ad nos commeare nisi primum 

1 Berington and Kirk. London, 1830, p. 403* 

2 Lectures on the Principal Doctrines and Practices of the Catholic Church, by 
Nicholas Wiseman, D.D. London, 1836. Vol. i. preface, p. ix. and vol. ii. p. 107- 




APPENDIX. 405 



ad suae naturae consortem descendisset. Ascendit Jesus in alium, 
captivam duxit captivitatem, accepit dona in hominibus. Qui descen- 
dit, ipse est qui ascendit super omnes ccelos ut impleret omnia. Et 
ipse dedit alios apostolos, alios prophetas, alios evangelistas, alios 
pastores et magistros in perfectionem sanctorum. 

[7. Aperti sunt cceli. Non sufficitunum coelum aperiri : aperi- 
untur plurimi, ut descendant non ab uno, sed ab omnibus coelis 
angeli ad eos qui salvandi sunt. Angeli qui ascendebant et descen- 
debant super Filium hominis, et accesserunt ad eum, et ministrabant 
ei. Descenderunt autem angeli, quia prior descenderat Christus, 
metuentes descendere priusquam Dominus virtutum omnium rerum- 
que praeciperet. Quando autem viderunt principem militiae coelestis 
in terrestribus locis commorari, tunc per apertam viam ingressi sunt 
sequentes Dominum suum, et parentes voluntati ejus qui distribuit 
eos custodes credentium nomini suo. Tu heri sub daemonio eras, 
hodie sub angelo. Nolite, inquit Dominus, contemnere unum de 
minimis istis qui sunt in ecclesia. Amen enim dico vobis, quia angeli 
eorum per omnia vident faciem Patris qui est in coelis. Obsequuntur 
saluti tuae angeli, concessi sunt ad ministerium Filii Dei, etdicuntinter 
se : si ille descendit, et descendit in corpus ; si mortali indutus est 
carne, et sustinuit crucem, et pro hominibus mortuus est, quid nos 
quiescimus ? quid parcimus nobis ? Eja omnes angeli descendamus 
e ccelo. Ideo et multitudo militiae coelestis erat laudantium et 
glorificantium Deum, quando natus est Christus. Omnia angelis 
plena sunt : veni, angele, suscipe sermone conversum ab errore 
pristino, a doctrina daemoniorum, ab iniquitate in altum loquente : 
et suscipiens eum quasi medicus bonus confove atque institue, par- 
vulus est, hodie nascitur senex repuerascens : et suscipe tribuens ei 
baptismum secundae regenerationis, et advoca tibi alios socios mini- 
sterii tui, ut cuncti pariter eos qui aliquando decepti sunt, erudiatis 
ad fidem. Gaudium enim est majus in coelis super unum peccatorem 
posnitentiam agentem, quam supra nonaginta novem justos quibus non 
opus est poenitentia, Exultat omnis creatura, collaetatur et applaudit 
his qui salvandi sunt. Nam expectatio creaturce revelationem filiorum 
Dei expectat. Et licet nolint ii qui scripturas apostolicas interpolave- 
runt istiusmodi sermones inesse libris eorum quibus ppssit Creator 
Christus approbari, expectat tamen omnis creatura filios Dei, quando 
liberentur a delicto, quando auferentur de Zabuli manu, quando rege- 
nerentur a Christo. Verum jam tempus est, ut de praesenti loco ali- 
qua tangamus. Vidit Propheta non visionem, sed visiones Dei. 



406 APPENDIX. 

Quare non vidit unam, sed plurimas visiones ? Audi Dominum pol- 
licentem atque dicentem : Ego visiones multiplicavi. 8. Quinta 
mensis. Hie annus quinta captivitatis regis Joachim. Trigesimo 
anno setatis Ezekielis, et quinto captivitatis Joachim, Propheta 
mittitur ad Judseos. Non despexit clementissimus pater, nee longo 
tempore incommonitum populum dereliquit. Quintus est annus. 
Quantum temporis intercessit ? Quinque anni interfluxerunt ex 
quo captivi serviunt.] 

Statim descendit Spiritus Sanctus, — aperuit ccelos, ut hi qui cap- 
tivitatis jugo premebantur, viderent ea quae videbantur a Propheta. 
Dicente quippe eo, Et aperti sunt coeli, quodam modo et ipsi intue- 
bantur oculis cordis quae ille etiam oculis carnis aspexerat. — Vol. iii. 
p. 358. 

Note.— Page 165. 

In a note on the Epistle of St. Cyprian to his brother, reference 
was made to the Appendix for a closer comparison of Cyprian's 
original letter with the modern translation of the passage under con- 
sideration. By placing the two versions in parallel columns side by 
side, we shall immediately see, that the mode of citing the testimony 
of St. Cyprian adopted in Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, from the com- 
pilation of Messrs. Berington and Kirk, is rather to substitute his 
own comment and inference, than to allow the witness to speak 
for himself in his own words. The whole paragraph, as it appears 
in Dr. Wiseman's Lectures 1 , is this : — 

" St. Cyprian in the same century : ' Let us be mindful of one 
another in our prayers ; with one mind and with one heart, in this 
world and in the next, let us always pray with mutual charity 
relieving our sufferings and afflictions. And may the charity of him, 
who, by the divine favour, shall first depart hence, still persevere 
before the Lord ; may his prayer, for our brethren and sisters, 
not cease.' Therefore, after having departed this life, the same 
offices of charity are to continue, by praying for those who remain 
on earth." 

St. Cyprian s words. — Epist. lvii. Translation adopted by Dr. Wise- 
p. 96. man from Berington and Kirk. 

1. Memores nostri invicem 1. Let us be mindful of one 

simus, another in our prayers ; 

1 Lect. xiii. vol. ii. p. 107, and Berington and Kirk, p. 430. 



APPENDIX. 407 

2. Concordes atque unanimes, 2. With one mind and with 

one heart, 

3. Utrobique. 3. In this world and in the 

next, 

4. Pro nobis semper oremus, 4. Let us always pray, 

5. Pressuras et angustias mu- 5. With mutual charity re- 
tua caritate relevemus, lieving our sufferings and afflic- 
tions. 

6. Et si quis istinc nostrum 6. And may the charity of 
prior divinae dignationis celeritate Him, who, by the divine favour, 
prsecesserit, perseveret apud Do- shall first depart hence, still per- 
minum nostra dilectio, severe before the Lord ; 

7. Pro fratribus et sororibus 7. May his prayer, for our 
nostris apud misericordiam patris brethren and sisters, not cease, 
non cesset oratio. 

In this translation, by inserting the words, in our prayers, which 
are not in the original in the first clause ; by rendering the adverb 
utrobique, in this world and in the next, in the third clause ; 
by omitting the words pro nobis, for each other, which are in the 
original, in the fourth clause ; by changing in the fifth the verb 
relevemus, let us relieve, implying another branch of their mutual 
kindness, into the participle relieving, which may imply, that 
the relief alluded to was also to be conveyed by the medium of 
their prayers ; by substituting the charity of him, in place of 
nostra dilectio, our charity, in the sixth ; and by inserting the 
word his, which is not in the original, before prayer, where the 
grammar of the sentence requires our, in the seventh clause ; — by 
these means the translator makes Cyprian express a sentiment far 
removed from what the words of Cyprian, in their plain and natural 
sense, convey. It must, however, be borne in mind, as we have 
shown in our examination of the passage, that the sentiment of 
Cyprian, even as it is thus unduly extracted from his words, 
would not in the remotest degree countenance the invocation of 
saints. It would do no more than imply his belief, that the faithful 
departed may take an interest in the welfare of their surviving 
friends on earth, and promote that welfare by their prayers ; a point 
which, in the preface, is mentioned as one of those topics, the discus- 
sion of which would be avoided in this inquiry, as quite distinct from 
the invocation of saints. 



408 APPENDIX. 

Note.— Page 176. 

An extract from Eusebius, unnoticed in the text of this work, has 
recently been cited as conveying his testimony in favour of the invo- 
cation of saints. I have judged it better to defer the consideration 
of it to the appendix. It has been cited in these terms ' : "In the 
fourth century Eusebius of Caesarea thus writes : ' May we be found 
worthy by the prayers and intercessions of all the saints.' " To 
form a just estimate of this alleged testimony, it is requisite that we 
have before us not only that incomplete clause, but the whole passage 
purporting to contain, in these words, the closing sentences of a 
commentary on Isaiah 2 : 

" ' And they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh.' To what flesh? 
Altogether to that which shall be somewhere punished ? Nay, to 
that which shall of the heavenly vision be deemed worthy, concerning 
which it was said before, All flesh shall come to worship before me, 
of which may we also be deemed worthy by the prayers and inter- 
cessions of all the saints. Amen." 

In examining this passage I am willing for the present that all 
its clauses should be accepted as the genuine words of Eusebius, 
and accepted too in the meaning attached to them by those who have 
cited them. And to what do they amount ? If these are indeed 
his expressions, Eusebius believed that the saints departed can for- 
ward our spiritual welfare by their prayers and ministering offices ; 
and he uttered his desire that we might thus be benefited. Now 
whether we agree with him or not in that belief; whether we con- 
sider the faithful departed as able to take an interest in our welfare 
and to promote it, or regard such an opinion as without foundation 
in the word of God and in primitive doctrine ; the belief implied 
and the wish expressed here by Eusebius, are widely indeed removed 
from the act of suppliantly invoking the saints departed, and resort- 
ing to them with entreaties for their prayers and intercessions in our 
behalf. These two things, although often confounded, are far from 
being equivalent ; and by all who would investigate with fairness 
the subject of our inquiry, they must be carefully kept distinct. 
The invocation of saints being the single point in question, our 
business is to ascertain, not what opinions Eusebius may have 

1 Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 107. Lect. xiii. Berington and Kirk, p. 431. 

2 Tom. ii. p. 593, ed. Paris, 1707. Dr. Wiseman's reference is ' Com. in Isai. 
Tom. ii. p. 593, ed. Paris, 1706.' 



APPENDIX. 409 

entertained as to the condition, and power, and offices of the saints 
departed, but whether he invoked them ; whether he had recourse 
to them with supplications for their prayers, or aid and succour. 
And keeping this closely in view, even if we admit this passage to 
be genuine, and interpret it as those who have cited it wish it to be 
interpreted, we find in it no authority for the invocation of saints. 
A Christian would be no more countenanced by this language of 
Eusebius in suppliantly invoking departed saints, than he would in 
praying to the angels for their help and mediation be countenanced 
by the terms of the prayer in regard to them, addressed by the 
Anglican Church to God, " O everlasting God, who hast ordained 
and constituted the services of angels and men in a wonderful order ; 
Mercifully grant, that as thy holy angels alway do Thee service in 
heaven, so by thy appointment they may succour and defend us on 
earth ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." Whoever petitions 
them, makes them Gods — Deos qui rogat ille facit. 

But whilst, for the sake of the argument, I have admitted this 
passage to be genuine, and correctly translated, and have shown 
that whether genuine or not, and even if it be thus correctly trans- 
lated, it affects not in the least the issue of our inquiry, I do not 
feel at liberty to withhold the acknowledgment of my persuasion 
that in this concession I grant too much. For, in the first place, I 
am assured, that if the passage came from the pen of Eusebius, no 
one is justified in confining the desire and wish contained in it to 
the intercessions and prayers of the saints in heaven ; and, secondly, 
I see reasons for inferring that the last clause was framed and 
attached to this work, not by Eusebius himself, but by some editor 
or scribe. 

In support of my first persuasion, I would observe that the very 
language of the writer of these comments on Isaiah and the Psalms 
precludes us from regarding the Saints departed as exclusively con- 
stituting those • holy ones' by whose intercessions and prayers he 
expresses his desire that our spiritual welfare may be promoted. 
In this very comment on Isaiah (ch. vi. 2. p. 376), when he is 
speaking of the heavenly inhabitants, and illustrates his views by 
God's dealings towards the children of men in this world, he employs 
this expression : " For as among men the Saints of God partake of 
more excellent graces." On the 67th (68th) Ps. v. 34, having inter- 
preted the words, " his strength is in the clouds," as referring to the 



410 APPENDIX. 

prophets and teachers of divine wisdom, under the guidance of the 
Spirit, pouring heavenly truths upon the souls of men as the clouds 
drop rain on fertile lands, he proceeds thus to comment on the ex- 
pression, ' God is wonderful among his Saints V " These Saints are 
different from those before called Apostles and prophets. And who 
can they be, except those who out of all nations are deemed worthy 
of purity and holiness, among whom God is wonderful, giving to 
them power and strength?" Thus in perfect accordance with the 
language of this writer, the Saints, from whose prayers and interces- 
sions he desires to derive spiritual benefits, may be the Saints of 
God on earth — in the same state with those saints still living in 
the flesh, whose prayers St. Paul desired to be offered up for himself, 
that by them a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ 
might be opened unto him 2 — and with those saints to whom the 
same Apostle wrote at Philippi : " To all the saints in Christ 
Jesus :" and to whom he sent the greetings of the saints who then 
surrounded him : " All the Saints salute you V 

But before the closing words of this paragraph, whatever be its 
meaning, be acknowledged as the genuine and undoubted production 
of Eusebius, I would suggest the careful weighing of some considera- 
tions, which appear to me to involve serious difficulties. 

1. First, through all the voluminous works of Eusebius, I have 
found in no single passage any allusion to the prayers of saints 
departed, or to their ministering offices in our behalf, though num- 
berless openings show themselves for the natural introduction of 
such a subject. 

2. Secondly, among all the various works and treatises of 
Eusebius, I have not found one which is closed by any termination 
of the kind ; on the contrary, they all end with remarkable sudden- 
ness and abruptness, precisely as this comment would end, were the 
sentence under consideration removed. Each, indeed, of the books 
of his Ecclesiastical History, is followed by a notice of the close of 
the book, in some cases too that notice involving a religious senti- 
ment : for example, at the close of the 10th book we read: " With 
the help of God, the end of the tenth book." But that these are ap- 
pendages made by an editor or scribe is evident in itself, and moreover 

1 Vol. i. p. 364. The English translation refers the word " holy " to places, not 
persons. 

2 Coloss. i. 2; iv 2, 3. 3 Phil. i. 1 ; iv. 22. 



APPENDIX. 411 

in many instances is shown by such sentences as these, " And this 
we have found in a certain copy in the 8th volume :" " This is in 
some copies, as if omitted from the 8th book." I find no one in- 
stance of Eusebius bringing a chapter or a treatise to its close by 
any religious sentiment, or any termination of the nature here con- 
templated. 

It is also difficult to conceive that any author, having the flow and 
connexion of the whole passage present to his mind, would himself 
have appended this ejaculation as we now find it. We know that 
editors and scribes often attached a sentiment of their own to the 
closing words of an author. And it seems far more probable, that 
a scribe not having the full drift of the argument mainly before him, 
but catching the expression, "heavenly vision," appended such an 
ejaculation. That the writer himself should introduce such a sen- 
tence by the connecting link of a relative pronoun feminine, which 
must of necessity be referred, not as the grammatical construction 
would suggest to the feminine noun preceding' it, — not to any word 
expressed or understood in the intervening clause preceding it, — not 
to the last word in the sentence even before that intervening clause, 
nor yet to the principal and leading subject immediately under dis- 
cussion and thrice repeated, — but to a noun incidentally introduced, 
seems, to say the least, strange and unnatural. " And they shall be 
for a spectacle to all flesh. To what flesh ? Altogether to that which 
shall be somewhere punished? Nay, to that which shall of the hea- 
venly vision be deemed worthy, concerning which it was said before, 
All flesh shall come to worship before me, of which may we also 
be deemed worthy by the prayers and intercessions of all the saints. 
Amen.'' But the classical reader will appreciate these remarks more 
satisfactorily by examining them with reference to the passage in the 
original language. 

Kcu egovtcu eIq bpamv 7raar) aapKi. rroiq ce aapxi ; ?) ttcivtmq ttov 
Trj KoXaadrjTO/uii'r] ; rrjg tie E7rovpariov Biag Kara^iojOrjao/uiir]' tteol 
'HE at (orepio iXeyero' rj^ei nana aapt, tov TrpoaKvrfjaai Et'ioiriov uov, 
f HS feat }]fAE~iQ d^iwdEirj/jiEv Evyalq kcli 7rpeaf)Eiaig navTioi' tuJv hy'uov, 
df-itjv. 

Note.— Page 181. 



ATHANASIUS. 



In the text 1 observed that some Roman Catholic writers of the 
present day had cited the homily there shown to be utterly spurious, 



412 APPENDIX. ■ 

as the genuine work of St. Athanasius, and as recording his testimony 
in defence of the invocation of Saints. The passage there referred 
to Dr. Wiseman thus introduces, and comments upon. 

" St. Athanasius, the most zealous and strenuous supporter that 
the Church ever possessed of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and con- 
sequently of his infinite superiority over all the saints, thus enthu- 
siastically addresses his ever-blessed Mother : ' Hear now, O 
daughter of David ; incline thine ear to our prayers. We raise our 
cry to thee. Remember us, O most holy Virgin, and for the feeble 
eulogiums we give thee, grant us great gifts from the treasures of 
thy graces, thou who art full of grace. Hail, Mary, full of grace, 
the Lord is with thee. Queen and mother of God, intercede for us.' 
Mark well," continues Dr. Wiseman, " these words ; ' grant us great 
gifts, from the treasures of thy graces;' as if he hoped directly to 
receive them from her. Do Catholics use stronger words than these? 
Or did St. Athanasius think or speak with us, or with Protestants ?" 

In answer to these questions I reply with sure and certain con- 
fidence, first, that the genuine words of St. Athanasius himself prove 
him to have spoken and thought with the Anglican Church, and not 
with the Roman Church on the invocation of saints and angels, and 
the blessed Virgin Mary ; and secondly, that whatever words Roman 
Catholics use, whether stronger or not than these, these words on 
which the above questions are put, never came forth from the pen of 
St. Athanasius. Their spuriousness is not a question of doubt 
or difficulty. It has been shown in the text that the whole homily 
has been for ages utterly repudiated, as a work falsely attributed to 
St. Athanasius. It is indeed very disheartening to those, whose 
object is the discovery and the establishment of the truth, to find 
works cited in evidence as the genuine productions of primitive 
Christian teachers, which have been so long ago, and so repeatedly, 
and that not by members of another communion, but by the most 
learned men of the Church of Rome, adjudged to be spurious. I 
do not mean that I think it not fully competent for a writer of the 
present day to call in question, and overrule and set aside the deci- 
sions of former editors, as to the genuine or the spurious character 
of any work. On the contrary I am persuaded that a field is open 
in that department of theology, which would richly repay all the 
time and labour and expense, which persons well qualified for the 
task could bestow upon its culture. What I lament is this, that 
after a work has been deliberately condemned as unquestionably 



APPENDIX. 413 

spurious, by competent and accredited judges for two centuries and 
a half at the least, that very work should be now cited as genuine 
and conclusive evidence, without any the most distant allusion to 
the judgment which had condemned it, or even to any suspicion of 
its being a forgery. In this instance, also, Dr. Wiseman has impli- 
citly followed the compilation of Messrs. Berington and Kirk. This 
is evident, because the extract, as it stands word for word the 
same in his Lectures and their compilation, is not found as one 
passage in the spurious homily, but is made up of sentences selected 
from different clauses, and put together so as to make one para- 
graph. It is worthy of notice, that in quoting their authority, both 
Dr. Wiseman, and those whom he follows, refer us to the very 
volume in which the Benedictine editors declare that there was no 
learned man, who did not pronounce the work to be spurious ; and 
in which also they quote at length the letter of Baronius which had 
proved it to be a forgery \ 

Note. — Page 231. (Decree of the Council of Trent 2 .) 

Mandat sancta Synodus omnibus Episcopis, et ceteris docendi 
munus curamque sustinentibus, ut juxta Catholicae, et Apostolicae 
Ecclesiae usum, a primaevis Christianas religionis temporibus recep- 
tum, sanctorumque Patrum consensionem, et sacrorum Conciliorum 
decreta, inprimis de Sanctorum intercessione, invocatione, Reliquiarum 
honore, et legitimo imaginum usu, fideles diligenter instruant, do- 
centes eos, Sanctos, una cum Christo regnantes, orationes suas pro 
hominibus Deo offerre ; bonum atque utile esse suppliciter eos in- 
vocare ; et ob beneficia impetranda a Deo per Filium ejus Jesum 
Christum, Dominum nostrum, qui solus noster Redemptor et Salva- 
tor est, ad eorum orationes, opem, auxiliumque confugere : illos 
vero, qui negant sanctos aeterna felicitate in ccelo fruentes, invocandos 
esse ; aut qui asserunt, vel illos pro hominibus non orare, vel 
eorum, ut pro nobis etiam singulis orent, invocationem esse idolola- 
triam, vel pugnare cum verbo Dei, adversarique honori unius 
Mediatoris Dei et hominum, Jesu Christi, vel stultum esse, in ccelo 
regnantibus voce, vel mente supplicare, impie sentire. Sanctorum 
quoque Martyrum, et aliorum cum Christo viventium Sancta corpora, 

1 Dr. Wiseman's Lectures, vol. ii. p. 108, from Berington and Kirk, p. 430, 431. 

2 Canoneset Decreta Sacros. GEcumen. et Genera. Concilii Tridentini, &c. Rom. 
fol. a.d. 1564. 



414 APPENDIX. 

quae viva membra fuerunt Christi, et templum Spiritus Sancti, ab 
ipso ad aeternam vitam suscitanda et glorificanda, a fidelibus vene- 
randa esse ; per quae multa beneficia a Deo hominibus praestan- 
tur : ita ut affirmantes, Sanctorum Reliquiis venerationem, atque 
honorem non deberi ; vel eas, aliaque sacra monumenta a fidelibus 
inutiliter honorari ; atque eorum opis impetrandae causa sanctorum 
memorias frustra frequentari ; omnino damnandos esse, prout jam- 
pridem eos damnavit, et nunc etiam damnat Ecclesia '. 



Note. — Pages 369 and 390. 

In a prefatory epistle, addressed to the " Chaplains, Wardens, and 
Brethren of the Holy Catholic Gild," in Huddersfield, Dr. Wiseman 
(p. 4) expresses himself thus : " Yesterday I laid the badge of your 
association at the feet of the sovereign pontiff, and it was most con- 
descendingly and graciously received. But this is not all. As I had 
foretold, I found His Holiness fully informed of your establishment 
and public manifestation ; and I had the satisfaction of hearing him 
express his wish that similar institutions should revive all 

OVER THE COUNTRY." 

Towards the close of the sermon, to which this preface is prefixed, 
and which was preached at St. Patrick's Chapel, Huddersfield, Sept. 
26th, 1839, and was printed at York in the present year 1 , the preacher 
draws the comparison, referred to in page 370 of this work, between 
England and the continent, and between England as it is, and 
England as it once was, and as, in his view, it ought to be again. 
After describing the scenes which you may witness in Roman 
Catholic countries, " where you might see the poor and the afflicted 
crowding round some altar, where their pious confidence or ex- 
perience of past favours leads them to hope that their prayers will 
best be heard through the intercession of our dear Lady," he thus 
proceeds : " Oh that the time had come, when a similar expression 
of our devout feelings towards her should publicly be made, and all 
should unite to show her that honour, that reverence, and love which 
she deserves from all Christians, and which has so long been denied 
her amongst us. There was a time when England was second to 

1 De Invocatione, Veneratione, et Reliqufis Sanctorum, et Sacris Imaginibus, 
p. 202. 

2 A.D. 1840. 



APPENDIX. 415 

no other country upon earth in the discharge of this holy duty ; and 
it will be only part of the restoration of our good and glori- 
ous days of old to revive to the utmost this part of ancient piety. 
Therefore do I feel sincere joy at witnessing the establishment of 
this excellent brotherhood, and its public manifestation in this town 
this day, both as a means of encouraging devotion and virtue, and 
as a return to one of the venerable institutions of our forefathers. 
Enter then fully into its spirit 1 ." 

1 " A Sermon delivered at St. Patrick's, Huddersfield, Sept. 26th, 1839, on occa- 
sion of the Holy Catholic Gild there established, by the Rev. N. Wiseman, D.D., 
Professor in the University of Rome. York, 1840," p. 22, 23. The first quotation 
made in p. 390, is from this Sermon. 



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